Master of the Forbidden Seals
by WraithRune
Summary: Halloween Night changed everything for Xander. Bond to a contract with the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon for power, he unknowingly unleashed great evils to the world... Magical Seals, Halloween weapons and mini-starships, their adventures have only just begun...
1. Chapter 1

**1. Chapter One: Konoha Halloween**

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**Summary: **After Halloween, one very ordinary Xander found that he wield extraordinary abilities, and came into an inheritance that is just as powerful, if not more powerful than what he is. Multiple Crossovers

**Crossover: **Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

**Book Title: **Master of the Forbidden Seals

**Author: **Wraithrune

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters from Buffy the vampire slayer or Naruto or star wars. This is just a work of fanfiction.

**Author's Notes:** Not sure if this idea has been used before. But only the other day I've to abandon another story idea because I saw someone writing something along the line of the same concept.^^ With such a huge fanbase, most Buffy fanfiction are seen and done. I apologise if this idea is done before, but it's been eating at me so it's time I write it down. Reviews are welcomed. If you guys got any nice fic along the line, pm me.

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**Chapter One: Konoha Halloween**

_"There is a story, a legend told long ago._

_When the world do not know the power of seals._

_And the one who brought it into being._

_When the greatest souls of light band together,_

_Against an overwhelming tide of dark._

_First and foremost is the Seal Master_

_The first of his kind and master of the forbidden._

_Second was the feared Slayer,_

_Who was more than what she seemed._

_Third was the daughter of Gaia,_

_Powers abound, that only she can wield._

_Fourth was the silent Slayer,_

_Swift in her kills and seldom seen._

_Fifth was the last true Slayer,_

_Dark yet champion of light._

_Sixth was the Watcher,_

_Wise and father to all._

_Seventh was the Werewolf,_

_A man of peace and stability._

_Eighth was the Queen of Hearts,_

_Tough yet wise to all._

_Ninth was the Romany,_

_Wielder of magic and technology._

_… (Text Lost)._

_…… (Text lost)_

_………. (Text Lost)_

_………….. (Text Lost)_

_And Thirteenth is Me,_

_Last of a proud line. Matriarch over all."_

_~ 3000 SA(Space Age). Dawn Summers, Grand Seal Mistress of the Intergalactic Watcher's Council_

_Poem of Beginnings, edited by Dawn_

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The new Halloween shop sure was an eye opener, Xander thought ruefully to himself as he eyed the various costumes on display. The last time he had came to a costume shop was when he was five and old man Harris had been in a generous mood to buy his son a superman costume. That was also the last real family outing he had with his father who had began drinking heavily.

Xander sighed looking longingly at the Spiderman costumes on display, heck even Green Lantern costume with the dorky ring and green lantern was there as well. He turned to look at the five dollar bill in his hand and quickly looked away. That was his allowance for the day, if he could find something cheap maybe he'll even have a few dollars left for tomorrow.

The troll, Principal Synder, had roped Buffy, Willow and him for Halloween trick or treating, acting as volunteers for the little children who need to be lead from house to house. Xander sighed, if it wasn't for that monster disguised as a school principle, he'll have no need for a costume.

"Xander! What are you doing? You were gone while I was choosing my costume." Buffy called out with a huff as she and Willow made their way towards him. They stumbled through the crowd of teenagers and children that were swarming all over in the shop. She beamed happily at him as she lifted up the eighteenth century dress in front of his face.

"That looks incredible, but I'd never have imagined you to be the frills and dresses type of girl. Are you out to impress someone?" Xander asked arching an eyebrow. It didn't go unnoticed to him that Buffy and Willow were huddled together this morning talking girl stuff, most probably talking about some guy.

_And the guy will never be me._ Xander sighed wistfully to himself.

"Impress someone?" Buffy laughed nervously shooting Willow a warning look. "Of course not, I feel like showing my inner princess today. So what are you getting for Halloween?"

"I'm not sure actually." Xander said looking around. "I am looking for something less than five bucks. Most probably I'd be dressing as a soldier since I got some old army uniforms at home, so if I can find a gun at the bargain bin everything will tie up nicely."

"Hmm… we can always go to the bargain bin and try our luck." Buffy said as the three of them walked to the big sign that said _'Bargain! $4 and below!'_.

"There are guns, and swords…" Willow said as she riflted through the stacks of costumes, before lifting up a bundle of tied up clothes and what looked like ninja equipments attached to it. "There's also this… I think someone must have put it in here by mistake, the quality of the clothes alone would make it more than four dollars."

Xander eyed the costume speculatively before a voice interuppted them from behind.

"On the contrary young lady." The shopkeeper said with a slight british accent as he bustled up to them. "I just put that damn costume there. Some kid must have ripped it and was afraid to own up. I couldn't sell ruined costume at full price, so I've placed it here. Are any of you interested?"

"Well I am." Xander said taking the bundle from Willow as he opened it up. He measured what looked like a ninja outfit against his body trying to guage the length. "It's a little big, but I can adjust the costume. As for the tear, I can fix it with staples and I'll be set for Halloween."

"So you'll take it?" the shopkeeper asked with a gleam in his eyes. "Good good, that's one worry off my mind. Oh yes, have a nice Halloween!"

Willow looked at the shopkeeper's retreating back before remarking thoughtfully. "You know, that shopkeeper's rather nice. First he gave Buffy a discount for her dress, now Xander got a nice costume at a bargain."

"Yeah! I am so recommending more people to his shop." Buffy said hugging her dress. Then she turned and took the ninja costume set from Xander's hands. "I'll have mom fix the hole in the shirt. For god's sake Xander, staples? You'll look like a rag man."

"Well I wouldn't say no if you offered to fix it for me." Xander grinned. "So I will go to your house say around 6 to change into my costume?"

"Yeah, don't be late. Synder want us to be in school by seven, and I'd rather not have him send us to detention for being late for the babysitting event." Buffy said dryly rolling her eyes as they made their way towards the cashier.

Willow beamed as she sighted a packet of ghost costume at a nearby table. She quickly swapped it before scrambling to catch up to Buffy and Xander through the crowd.

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There was chaos in the darkly lit streets. Monsters he had never seen before were running rampart all over. He sighted the crescent moon hanging over the night sky and paused as he took in his surroundings.

This should not have been possible. He was long dead and had spent a good portion of his afterlife doing afterlife stuff… He shouldn't be in the living world again mingling with an unidentified horde of creatures.

"What the hell is going on?" Naruto muttered to himself.

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Xander blinked groggily, his head pounded as he tried to gather his thoughts. He was leading his children around the houses trick or treating, when a feeling of massive power had washed over him. The next thing he knew, he was standing in front of a stone building with flowers and greenery all around him. Before him was a giant cage and in it… was a humongous nine tailed fox… who was glaring at him in irritation.

"Argh…" Xander let out a strangled cry as he sat onto the stone pavement hard.

"Oh stop looking like a fish and come closer, he should be here any minute now." The fox said giving Xander an annoyed look. "This is a very strange situation, just wait a while until that old man drops by and I'll explain."

Sounds of footsteps sounded behind Xander who quickly stood up and turned around. He saw an old man with a tan weathered face wearing a ninja outfit that looked to be a close match to his Halloween costume. The old man looked startled to see Xander, his eyes widening with something akin to shock.

"What's this child doing here?" The old man asked in surprise.

"That's my question! What the hell am I doing here? Who are you people… er creature." Xander managed with a weak retort.

"Calm down Naruto and Xander. I'll try to explain to the best of my ability." The fox said. Xander looked at the fox with a start wondering how it knew his name. "Someone had cast a weird jutsu on this boy and a lot of other children outside, imposing the characteristic of their costumes onto the children. This boy dressed as you and so he became you literally. I became a tag along because in order to become truly you, I have to be sealed in your physical body. From the memories I could gleam from this boy's mind, his world and our world are totally different. However, based on the chakra I could sense from this jutsu, if we can trace it to the source and destroy it, everything will return back to normal."

"Destroying whatever caused this is great, but who give you permission to read my mind in the first place? My mind's meant to be mine alone!" Xander said angrily.

"Quiet child." The old man, Naruto said in a commanding voice. "Do you not realize that you and the people around you are in a great deal of danger? I'll try to help if I can. No ninja who used his powers in such a destructive and wanton manner will escape punishment. But first you need to calm down and let me do what I can to stop this mess."

"Doing good deeds even in death." The fox said in a mocking voice. "Aren't you passed that stage?"

"Shut up fox. Just guide me to the place I needed to do battle against this evil ninja." Naruto said with a scowl. "Oh yeah, lend me some of your powers will you? The amount of chakra this boy has isn't enough for the most basic of jutsu."

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The fox had kindly created a mirror which reflect the outside world seen from Xander's own eyes as Naruto disappeared. Xander watched in amazement as Naruto took control of his physical body and by using several hand seals, teleported himself to the source of the 'chakra disruption', which Xander saw to his surprise was the costume shop.

Naruto had gone in and knocked out the shopkeeper who seemed to be the one that had turned everyone into their costumes. The statue in the middle of the room also seemed to be the focus, a fact that the fox had muttered loudly.

"That was too easy." The fox said disgruntled. "The ninjas in your world are too weak even though they wield so much power! Where's my blood and gore?"

"Please keep your blood lust to yourself Kyubi." Naruto said rolling his eyes as he faded into the mindscape that contained Xander and the fox. "But I've to admit, that's too easy."

"That's because the shopkeeper's not a ninja." Xander said exasperated. "I think he's a mage, you know a spell caster?"

"What's that?" Naruto asked turning wearily to the fox. "Is it anything I should take note of?"

"From the kid's memory, a spell caster is someone who can use chakra in him and around him, but with no ninja training." The fox said.

"Well that explained why it was so easy to overpower him. But now we come to a crossroad." Naruto said with a sigh and turned to Xander. "Boy I've been thinking."

"Thinking?" Xander asked with a flicker of uncertainty crossing his face. "Thinking is bad. Why not just smash the statue like the fox told you to and end the spell? I'll really like my body back."

"I'll do that later I promise, but first I have a proposition for you." Naruto said with a hard gleam in his eyes. "Before I died, I made a promise that I could never fulfill. You could help me in my last wish and I could give you a lot of power in return. What do you think fox?"

The fox sighed as if knowing what Naruto was saying. "You are a persistent man aren't you? I have no objection. This boy can hide no secrets from me. Because of the weird jutsu that called us to this world, his thoughts are tied to mine just as your thoughts are tied to me. From what I have glimpsed of his memories, he's a bit like you when you were younger, I shudder to think of living inside someone with the same personality again. But then it's not as if the great God is giving me any choice."

Naruto grinned as he looked at Xander. "A bit like me huh. That's good."

"You guys are starting to make me nervous" Xander said worriedly. "You are returning me my body right?"

"I will in due time, but first please listen to my plead. I assure you on my honor that I will return everyone back to normal after you have made a decision." Naruto said motioning to Xander to calm down. "It all began with who I am. I was a very powerful ninja, but since birth, I've a demon sealed in me."

Naruto waved to the fox standing in the cage behind Xander. Xander's eyes widened as he realized the fox was a demon with a capital D.

"The demon killed thousands of ninjas and innocent people in its rampage and the only way to stop it was to seal it in a new born child. Throughout the years, Kyubi, also called the nine-tailed fox demon, learnt humanity through me. He became a constant companion in my battles against ninjas who would rule the world by force. Though I can't call him a saint, he was not the evil being he once was.

My greatest life's work was to find a way to free the Kyubi from me without the process killing either one of us, and destroying our souls forever. I was a master of the secret art of seals, and before my death, the seal that was to free the Kyubi was half done. I would like you to continue my work. And in return, Kyubi would lend you his powers."

"Powers? That sounds cool, but you know me and the evil redemption thing doesn't work very well. I always run out of coupons in the end." Xander said backing away. "And anyway, what if I free the fox and it turned evil again?"

"As proof of our intentions, Kyubi, let him access to both our memories. Nobody can lie in a mind connection, and I'd like you to judge the truth for yourself." Naruto said nodding to the giant fox.

"It'll overwhelm him." The fox sighed as a flood of red chakra spread from him and out of the cage.

As the wave of red chakra brushed against Xander, light bust in his mind as Naruto and the Kyubi's memories raced through his head.

He saw Naruto as a young boy, hated by all the adults around him because he was the container of the demon that had killed their love ones. He saw Naruto struggling to be cheerful under all the hate, the insults and the assassination attempts. Though for a while the boy bore hatred for his tormentors, he began to slowly realize that they were just people who were hurting underneath due to the past wrongs Kyubi had done to them.

Slowly, Naruto began to forgive them and in time, was able to let go of his painful past. Naruto had grown up to be a powerful ninja that was loyal to his friends and had sworn to protect 'all his precious people'. Even under great hardship, he would not give up all the people he loves, and on the promises he had made.

Then Xander saw the Kyubi's memories. The nine-tailed fox was a being of energy that had known hatred for the human race for hundreds of years. In its path was only destruction. But it changed, slowly and without knowing, as the boy he was sealed in struggled to grow up strong, even with the great number of people working against him. Naruto did not give up nor give in to hatred. Kyubi became influenced by Naruto's love for his people, for his friends. From being Naruto's special people, they became Kyubi's special people as well.

Xander saw the Kyubi saving Naruto from death many times, using his powers to protect Naruto and his special people. He felt the love and kindness that the fox slowly but gradually developed. And he felt the fox's acceptance as Naruto died before completing his promise to release him.

Xander's head spun as he sank to the floor in a daze trying to absorb the memories which were slowly disappearing. From the memories, Naruto was someone honorable, though not without flaws. The Kyubi as well was a far cry from what he used to be. If Xander accepted Naruto's proposal, the fox demon would be sealed into his body instead.

"Oh wow." Was the only words that came out of Xander's mouth when he came to his senses. He looked at Naruto. "You've been through so much."

Naruto smiled, looking at Xander in acknowledgement. "So what do you think? Do you accept my offer? According to the Kyubi, he can teach you to wield his powers if you agreed to the deal."

"Yeah, I think so. The powers you guys possess… If I can even have a bit of it, I'll be a big help to the group instead of just being the donut boy." Xander said longingly. "You know, I think I would have liked to meet you before you died. You could be someone I look up to."

Naruto smiled. "Thank you. So would I… Then Kyubi, you ready to stay in this world?"

"Honestly, I don't mind living again." The fox said looking sadly at Naruto. "But I know that you with your principles, you would not want another chance at life. I'll miss you… a bit. Well, what are you waiting for? Smash the statue already! I am waiting."

Naruto smiled as he faded from the mindscape and took over Xander's body. Enhancing chakra to his fist, he smash down at the statue which shattered into pieces. As the Halloween spell began collapsing, Xander felt Naruto's spirit leaving. In that instance, Kyubi gave a terrifying roar in his mind, as if grieving for an old friend. Red chakra began leaking from Xander's body like a burning flame that consumed the whole shop.

Then he knew nothing more…

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Xander regained his senses slowly. One moment he was still with the fox, the next he was in his body looking at a shop gone crazy.

_Some of the costumes are moving! _Xander thought in shock.

_"Oops! I think whatever I did to keep me in this world also turned the rest of the costumes in this shop real."_ the fox's voice said apologetically in his head.

"What?" Xander cried out. His heart leapt out as he saw a Darth Vader human sized model turning towards him. "Do something!"

_"I'll have to take over your body, you're too inexperience to use my powers now." _The fox agreed.

Xander felt a sense of dislocation as red trails of power leaked out from his body and his hands moved on their own. He grimaced as the fox made him bit his right thumb hard enough to draw blood, and using his left hand to tear a strip of his Halloween costume.

Then quickly his bleeding thumb moved over the strip of torn cloth, writing some weird blood markings that glowed in power. A burst of energy exploded out of him, surrounding every costumes in the shop.

Xander blinked as the costumes disappeared from sight. The blood markings on cloth glowed with an eldritch maroon light, pulsing as if alive. The shop was bare in a matter of moments, leaving only the empty counters, the tables, shelves, chairs and an unconscious shopkeeper.

"What happened?" Xander asked looking around him in shock.

"I've sealed every object that was affected by the Halloween jutsu into this cloth." The voice of the fox said tiredly. "We can decide what to do with them later. Let's get out of this place for now, before anyone dangerous comes in."

Xander stared at the cloth in amazement before putting it carefully in his pockets. Then pausing to consider the fox's words, he rolled his eyes.

"This is Hellmouth central we're talking about. There's always someone dangerous _across_ the street." Xander said. Stepping carefully over the shopkeeper, he strolled out of the shop. He was back to his old self, albeit with a fox demon in his head, and costumes turned real which were sealed in a scroll in his pocket.

Xander sighed. His life had just gotten more interesting.

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**References:**

Kyubi: a nine tailed fox demon.

_Naruto: a ninja from the anime and manga Naruto._

_Chakra: physical and spiritual energy that one generates. In my story, it's same as the energy used by willow and the others to cast spells._

_Seals: complex formulaic magic that is able to seal away objects or allow other feats._

_Jutsu: in my story, is the ninja equivalent of a magic spell._

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**Ps.** I am taking great libertities with Naruto cannon itself. Aside from Kyubi, two other Naruto characters will be joining Xander in the future chapters.


	2. Chapter 2

**2. Chapter Two: Hellmouth opening**

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**Summary: **After Halloween, one very ordinary Xander found that he wield extraordinary abilities, and came into an inheritance that is just as powerful, if not more powerful than what he is. Multiple Crossovers

**Crossover: **Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

**Book Title: **Master of the Forbidden Seals

**Author: **Wraithrune

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters from Buffy the vampire slayer or Naruto. This is just a work of fanfiction.

**Author's Notes:** Ok hope this chapter doesn't disappoint! ^^ I need a beta reader who knows Buffy, a bit of Naruto and Star Wars let me know if you're interested!

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**Chapter Two: Hellmouth opening **

_"Everything must have a Balance. The one time I made a deal with the nine tailed fox demon, active hellmouths started opening all over the dimension. And by dimension I mean __**our**__ dimension. It would pretty much be the end of the world scenario, the only thing preventing that was the Kyubi himself and the whole lot of costumes turned real in our possession."_

_~ Alexander Lavelle Harris, Memoirs of the first Seal Master_

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A wave of energy washed over her as Glory's eyes snapped open. Something powerful, a magical fallout of some sort was covering the entire world.

She was known by many names, foremost was what the denizens of this world called her by, 'The Beast'. But she preferred the term hellgod which is who she really was.

Now as she stretched out her senses, she could feel the weakening magical protections that were keeping her from the object of her search. The chaotic wave of energy smashed against the mystical shields protecting it, and in a moment of clarity she sensed its location.

A smile stretched across Glory's face.

She had found the Key.

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Finding each and every children that was supposed to be under his charge was a nightmare. Xander was already feeling very drained and the fox did not help any by making snoring sounds in his head.

_"Hey! What are you doing?"_ Xander said with a mental nudge as he led the few children he had found across the streets in search for the rest that were missing. The five and six year olds, dressed in their costumes were looking horribly battered and worn out. But so far, none of them seemed to be injured.

_"I am sleeping. What does it look like I am doing."_ The fox said in annoyance. _"Overriding the seal that was imprisoning me and taking over your body took a lot out of me, and it hurts. Also, I've spent some of my energy opening your chakra pathways so that you can sense and manipulate chakra. As a result, I am very tired."_

"Oh I didn't know that." Xander grimaced, speaking out loud, as he sent a mental wave of apology to the fox. "Go back to your nap, while I try to find all of my little brats."

There was a slight rumble in his head as the fox resumed his sleep.

"Who are you talking to?" One of the children beside him asked. Xander turned and saw that all his charges were giving him funny looks.

"Ah… I am talking to my imaginary friend." Xander said quickly. "You all have imaginary friends right?"

"We're too old for imaginary friends!" One of the five year old girls said indignantly then whined. "Can we go home yet?"

"Give me just a few more minutes to find the other children." Xander coaxed.

He gave a sigh. Yup, this was going to be a very long night.

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"Thank God! They're all gone!" Xander said in relief as he disposed the last of his children at school. During the search for his children, he had come upon a disorientated Willow and a disgruntled Buffy. The three had made short work of their individual search for the children under their care. They also found some children that were lost and uncared for and took them back to school as well.

"I am making a promise to myself not to have more than two kids." Buffy said with a shudder. Giving a sigh, she then turned grimly towards Xander and Willow, a hard look in her eyes.

On the journey back to school Buffy and Willow had discussed the weirdness that was Halloween night. Willow had turned into a real ghost while Buffy had the memories of being an eighteenth century noble woman running around the streets of Sunnydale. To say Buffy was unhappy at being turned into a whimpering and spineless creature was an understatement.

"We've got to find Giles and tell him what have happened." Buffy said leading the way to the library.

"Do we have to? Everyone did change back so it's not that big of a problem right?" Xander said with a weak smile trying to lighten the situation. Somehow he doesn't think that telling Buffy and the others about the powerful fox demon sealed in him was a good idea right now. They didn't share the fox's memories and they might think that Xander himself had become a threat.

A rumble shook the school building.

"Is that an earthquake?" Willow asked squeaking in fright before pausing in mid-thoughts. "Wait a minute, Sunnydale is not in the earthquake zone!"

Another shake caused the school to shudder. Dried plaster fell from the ceiling above them and cracks began forming on the walls around them. An eldritch cry sounded in the distance, coming from the library.

"Giles!" Buffy and Xander said at once as the two of them with Willow trudging behind, started running towards the library.

The library doors burst open as Giles clutching a book, rushed out, nearly stomping over them.

"Oh Buffy." Giles said with a startled gasp as he saw them. "Good, you're here. The hellmouth suddenly opened, I need you to hold off the demons coming out of the hellmouth while I cast the spell to close it."

"The hellmouth is open?" Buffy asked in shock.

A large tentacle suddenly burst out of the library, snapping towards their direction.

"Scatter!" Xander yelled as he pulled Willow to one side. Giles and Buffy dove in the opposite direction trying to get out of reach of the monstrous appendage.

"This can't be happening!" Buffy said with a groan. "I was supposed to meet Angel at my house around this time."

Buffy gave a growl as she glared through the open library doors, looking at the sink hole in the library floor where a giant octopus like creature was struggling to get out.

"Whatever that thing is, it is going to regret ruining my plans for the night!" Buffy cried as she leapt away from the groping tentacle and ran towards the opened hellmouth, slamming a devastating uppercut at the offending head of the creature.

"She's meeting Angel?" Xander asked Willow incredulously ignoring the fight around him. "As in a romantic date kind of thing?"

"Well yeah, but that doesn't matter now, we've got to help Buffy!" Willow said gesturing at their slayer friend.

"That's ridiculous! He's a…" Xander exclaimed. He was about to say that Angel was a vampire, albeit one with a soul. Then he thought about his current situation where he had a demon in his body. He gave a sigh. "Never mind, forget that I said anything. We need to get to the weapons cage where we can get some weapons to use."

The two of them looked at the tentacle that was in their way. Then Xander turned to look at Willow.

"Stay and keep a look out for Giles." Xander said. "I am faster, I might be able to make it."

"But…"

"Willow look at Giles." Xander said pointing to Giles who was standing out of the fight, muttering some long strings of Latin words of power. He was already lost in the spell that would close the hellmouth. "He's our only hope of closing that portal. I'll get the weapons."

Willow gave a reluctant nod. Seeing that she understood, Xander raced towards the weapons cage, scrabbling over the tentacle that was doing its best of trying to shake him off. Buffy was hammering down furiously at the monster preventing it from getting out any further from the hellmouth.

_"Fox, now would be a very good time to help."_ Xander called out in a mental plead.

The fox groaned in his head. _"I can't forcibly take over your body everytime you run into some trouble. My demonic chakra would eventually cause your body to break down if you are not given time to heal."_

_"So what should I do?"_ Xander asked as he tried frantically to get the cage door open. The door slide open and Xander rushed in snatching at two swords and the crossbow.

_"Do what you're doing now, you're handling things well enough. Unless the situation is really desperate then call me. Your body is still adjusting to my presence and to strain it any further would be unwise."_ The fox said. _"I'll keep an eye out just in case. If worse comes to worse, I'll be forced to take over your body again."_

_"Ok"_ Xander agreed before turning to call out to Buffy. "Buffy, catch the sword!"

Buffy jumped in mid air to snatch the sword that Xander threw in her direction before leaning down to duck a swinging tentacle.

"Thanks!" Buffy called out as she made a downward slash with the sword. Green liquid sprayed onto the walls of the library and the demon roared in pain.

"Giles, hurry." Xander muttered in a prayer as he made for the direction of the library doors. He threw the crossbow and the satchel of crossbow bolts to Willow and quickly began hacking at the stray tentacle in his way, diverting the demon's attention towards him.

"This is gross!" Xander cried out as he got a face full of green blood.

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"The library is totally destroyed." Giles said staring at the broken library doors, the overturned shelves of spilled books, smashed tables and chairs. He looked at the hole in the middle of the library floor, the reeking corpse of the demon, the green blood on the library walls, and started contemplating what he would tell Synder.

"It's not destroyed. Totally that is." Willow said in an attempt to cheer the watcher. "Erm look, that chair over there, it's still in one piece. And the… oh yeah! The weapons cage is still untouched!"

"Willow, please don't help." Giles said pinching his forehead. "I might need to contact the watcher's council to get them to smooth things out for me with the school board. What I don't understand was why the hellmouth opened on its own. There was not even an attempt by any demons to open it."

"Er. Giles, I think we need to talk to you about Halloween night." Buffy said as she wiped the slime off her sword. "Something really weird happened just now."

"You're telling me this now?" Gile asked.

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"… And I became a ghost and wander around the streets passing through things." Willow was saying. "Except unlike Buffy I could still remember who I am. I was going to find Xander and Buffy but I suddenly woke up in my real body. It was as if everything just suddenly went back to normal."

"We were coming to find you to tell you about it when the hellmouth opened." Buffy explained. "So there wasn't really time for us to tell you everything."

Giles gave a sigh. "From your description, it seemed that a powerful mage tried cast a spell to turn everyone into their costumes. I don't know why the spell ended, but I am pretty sure it must be the reason why the hellmouth was opened. Though most likely as an unintentional side effect."

"How could you know it's unintentional?" Buffy asked. "We don't know who our enemies are!"

"Well I can't see the relationship between turning everyone into their costumes and intentionally opening the hellmouth. But since the Halloween spell was the only major mystical event that happened tonight, and the spell did stop soon after it started, we can safely assume that whoever stopped the spell must have somehow accidentally unleashed a backlash of energy that opened the hellmouth." Giles explained.

"The spell that affected you was most likely chaotic in nature seeing that the effects were pretty much random, Willow turned into a ghost and remember who she was, while Buffy and Xander was not in control of themselves during the spell. As with most chaos spell, you could never really tell what would happen, which might be why there was a backlash when the spell ended. With the limited information we had, I doubt we'll ever know who the spellcaster or spellcasters were."

Buffy sighed. "So I guess this goes down as one of Sunnydale's unsolved mysteries… Ah… Giles is that police sirens I am hearing coming towards the school?"

Giles groaned. "Someone must have called the police. The three of you get out of sight and go home. I'll handle this."

Xander who had been keeping unusually silent the whole time suddenly cracked a grin as he looked at the library wreckage.

"Man, Synder's going to have a heart attack when he sees this!"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_8 hours later_

The sun was shining through the crack in the basement window by the time Xander woke up. He stretched and grinned as he remembered what had happened the previous night.

"Hey fox you there?" Xander asked, prodding at the mental space where the fox was.

_"I'm here I'm here."_ The fox yawned as if just waking up as well. _"What do you want?"_

"Well we never did get a chance to talk much last night." Xander said, pointing towards his drawer where he had stuff a certain torn cloth with blood seals on it. "I was just wondering what we should do with those costumes that had turned real. I didn't really understand what you mean by them turning real. Is it a permanent thing? I still remember seeing the Darth Vader model coming to life and that's major badness."

_"Well the jutu or rather, the spell that the shopkeeper cast, rebound back on the whole shop. That's mostly because I was exerting my powers to stay in this world once the spell ended. I presume those plastic models really gained life because of the costumes they had on at the time. If you were to say put on the costumes that were not on any plastic models during the time of the rebound, a similar case of what happened during Halloween would happen again."_ The fox explained. _"I also highly suspect that the changes made to the costumes were permanent, as there's no way to stop the spell on them now. The focus had been destroyed after all._

"Wow, and so I presume the equipments in the shop also turned real as well." Xander's eyes light up. "I remembered seeing some ray guns and plasma canons. What I would give to try one of them… Fox, can we just take out one item from the seal? Though I would rather not unleash Darth Vader to the world just because I wanted a toy."

_"There's a way. But I you will need to learn the method of doing it yourself instead of having me take over your body."_ The fox said with a grumble. _"It hurts for me to attempt to take over your body and I am not going to suffer through that just for you to go into the seal to retrieve a bauble."_

"Oh yeah right. Sorry, I can wait." Xander said quickly. "But fox, is what Giles said last night true? About us being the cause of the hellmouth opening?"

_"It might be true or it might not be."_ The fox said with a sniff. _"Unfortunately your knowledge of this world is inadequate for me to come to a conclusion. So it is best not to worry about it. If you really want something to do, you can start training."_

"Oh training" Xander said enthusiastically. "I can still remember Naruto's memories of how he did all those incredible things with jutsus and seals. But the memories are a bit faded, it's like they happened a long time ago."

_"That's your human brain trying to cope with all the excess memories without breaking down."_ The fox said. _"And that's what I am here for. I can pulled out the memory needed and imprint it in your mind again. But the only real way you'll remember is to learn for yourself."_

"I am ready anytime." Xander said puffing out his chest. "Hit me."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_"You are a disgrace."_ The fox snarled. _"An eight year old ninja can do better than you."_

"But I just can't manipulate the chakra in my body myself!" Xander said exasperated. "I can sense chakra, even see it now. I can force chakra to leak outside my body, but I just can't mold it to my command at all! I don't understand! Naruto could do it when he was in my body."

_"I guess I might be a little too hard on you. Chakra manipulation took practice and also a significant build up of spiritual energy. Naruto had those practices during all those years he was a ninja, and being a spiritual form during Halloween, he also brought over his own spiritual energy. A pity that the Halloween spell did not change your body to have a large chakra capacity as Naruto had while he was alive. It could be that because Naruto was already dead, that the spell only gave Naruto control of your body and not change your physical self to be like Naruto's. After all, chakra is a mixture of physical and spiritual energy. The real Naruto no longer had a physical body for the spell to copy. You in any case have very little amount of both spiritual and physical essences."_

"But I can still tap into your chakra right?" Xander asked.

"_You can, though it would be best that I gradually start you on exercises that can build up your own chakra. It is not a good idea to rely on my chakra. Remember the training exercises that I've taught you just now and practice them when you're free. We'll begin the next subject. Since you are able to at least pull chakra from your body, you will be able to do sealing at least. Making seals is basically the art of seeing." _The fox replied.

"Seeing?" Xander asked.

_"Yes. Seals are the purest and most true representation of the essence of an object_." The fox said in a lecturing voice. _"A good seal master is one who can look at the heart of an object and see it in its purest form, writing it out to form a powerful combination of seals. By applying chakra to seals, you will be able to replicate the feats done with jutsus."_

"Very well I'll give it a try." Xander said in a discouraged tone. "But this time, I think I better not keep my hopes up."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Kyubi stared in astonishment as Xander drew the seal for 'Life' after showing him the memory of Naruto doing the same thing just once.

There was not even the slightest mishandling during the drawing of the seal, as those new to the art of sealing was apt to do. The strokes were just perfect, and the sequence that he drew the strokes in was exactly as in the memory.

_"Draw the 'Dog' seal now"_ Kyubi said showing Xander a new memory.

"This is easy." Xander said, frowning in concentration as he drew out the next seal.

_"Alright, that's enough Xander. Take a piece of paper and look at it. Concentrate, see its place in the vast universe. If one was to write a symbol for 'paper' what would it be?"_

"Hmm…" Xander said staring at the paper feeling it with his chakra senses. For a moment, he could see nothing, and then his chakra senses picked up a pattern …

Kyubi looked on in astonishment as Xander scribbled out his interpretation of the symbol. The symbol was exactly what the seal for 'paper' would look like.

_"How are you doing that?"_ Kyubi cried out in surprise.

"Well it's just patterns after all and I could see them clearer now that I know how to sense chakra." Xander said worriedly. "Why? Did I do something wrong?"

_"No, in fact you did very well."_ Kyubi reassured him. "Now look at the table, what is the seal for 'table'?"

Kyubi watched as Xander paused in concentration before scribbling out a new symbol.

_"Incredible, this kid could really see to the heart of things. Not even Naruto could do the things Xander did on his first try with seals"_ Kyubi said to himself impressed. _"Maybe Naruto didn't make such a bad choice after all."_

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

*Bounce* Bounce* Bounce*

"Argh! Who's rocking my bed?" Buffy cried out, startled out of her sweet dream where she was kissing with Angel to stare into… a face.

"AH!" Buffy cried out jerking back.

"AH!" The young girl who was hunched over Buffy's sleeping form reared back as well.

"Jeez Buffy, what's your problem? Were you having… naughty dreams? You were mumbling in your sleep you know." The young girl said with a knowing leer. "Angel…*sigh* Angel…"

Buffy growled and pounced towards her. The girl took off with a scream as Buffy chased after her.

"MOM! DAWN IS BEING A NUSIANCE! AGAIN!" Buffy roared.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**References:**

_Kyubi: a nine tailed fox demon._

_Naruto: a ninja from the anime and manga Naruto._

_Chakra: physical and spiritual energy that one generates. In my story, it's same as the energy used by willow and the others to cast spells._

_Seals: complex formulaic magic that is able to seal away objects or allow other feats._

_Jutsu: in my story, is the ninja equivalent of a magic spell._

* I am taking liberties with the sealing techniques in Naruto as there was never really much info on it. As such, treat the sealing methods Xander is learning as outside of Naruto canon.


	3. Chapter 3

**3. Chapter Three: Ice, morphing, ray guns and seeing**

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**Summary: **After Halloween, one very ordinary Xander found that he wield extraordinary abilities, and came into an inheritance that is just as powerful, if not more powerful than what he is. Multiple Crossovers

**Crossover: **Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

**Book Title: **Master of the Forbidden Seals

**Author: **Wraithrune

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters or plots from Buffy the vampire slayer, Andromeda, Star Wars, Casper the friendly ghost, Ghostbuster, Final Fantasy VII, X-Men, Primeval and Naruto. This is just a work of fanfiction. I claim **none **of the TV, anime, books, or game series plots or characters that were used in my story _(just in case I forget to write a fandom I've used)_

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**Chapter Three: Ice, morphing, ray guns and seeing **

_"I still remembered the first two words Xander said to me when he saw me face to face…_

_He just stared at me, backpedaling and said 'Oh Shit!'_

_~ Anakin Skywalker, Grand Master of the New Jedi_

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

"Love, you alright?" Spike asked worriedly as Drusilla began to shake.

"A new power is born." She whispered peering unseeingly at the ceiling. "Hush Spike hush. We must not let him See us."

"Dru, what are you talking about?" Spike lowered his voice into a gentle tone, well used to Drusilla's prophetic ravings.

"Power and knowledge stirs within him." Drusilla said staring at Spike with frightened eyes. "The One Who Sees is the world's doom and its salvation, and he'll free me for all eternity."

"What? Who is the One Who Sees?" Spike asked quickly, thinking that Drusilla might be prophesying her own death.

"He's the one who will change the world, and make the humans strong." Drusilla said with a wild gleam in her eyes. "Chosen champion of both the Balance and Chaos. The Teacher of the Key. The stone that will set off an avalanche."

Drusilla gave an anguish wail and then turned to face Spike, for a moment she looked almost coherent.

"We must hide Spike, don't let him See us…"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Kyubi watched as Xander continued to do the rest of his sealing exercises. Already with just only half a day, he had progressed far enough to make the seal for an exploding tag.

Then he felt it, the vast sense of power that was washing over Xander… and him. Kyubi felt something ancient, a being of pure chakra and much more powerful than even himself. Quickly he flared up his chakra to counter it…

"Hey fox! What the hell are you doing in my head? It itches." Xander said pausing in the middle of writing a new seal and asked Kyubi.

_"I…"_ Kyubi struggled to recall what he was originally doing. _"I must have dozed off for a while there, why? Did something happen?"_

"I was getting some seriously weird vibes from you just now." Xander said shaking his head. "Anyway, it doesn't really matter. So when do you think I can make the seal that will allow me to take some of the costumes out?"

_"You are progressing faster than Naruto did when he was studying sealing, even with Naruto's memories as your guide."_ Kyubi said answering Xander. _"But that particular seal you're talking about is considered very high level. At the rate you are progressing, I'll say a few more weeks."_

"Great! I can't wait to get my hands on some of the toys." Xander grinned and rubbed his hands and then he sobered. "Actually fox, I know that Naruto had already 'seen' the essence of so many objects in his life, why don't you just imprint his memories on me again so I'll know what the essences of any particular seals feels like instead of me wasting time learning to see on my own?"

_"You do remember your promise to Naruto and I don't you?"_ Kyubi asked pointedly. _"Since Naruto's memories are considered foreign, your mind will naturally reject it, causing you to only bear a dim recollection of those memories in only just a few days time. Once you freed me, I'll no longer be there to imprint Naruto's memories on you. Then what would happen if you don't know how to 'see' on your own? Your own memories of the essence of an object are best as you'll remember it for a long time."_

"So you're actually doing the teacher-ly stuff of making me learn from the beginning… Before I run I must crawl huh? I guess I understand in a way. If I keep relying on you to refresh Naruto's memories for me, I'll be in trouble once you're gone." Xander said grinning sheepishly. He looked at the clock and suddenly jumped out of his seat. "Oh no! I promised Dawn I'll watch The Lion King with her today."

_"Dawn?"_ Kyubi asked in confusion. He searched Xander's memories and found what he was looking for. _"Ah you mean Buffy's little sister. Strange, I thought I already accessed all your memories, how could this information had slipped pass me?"_

"I don't know, but don't tell me you never make mistakes before. Anyway, ignoring your slide to senility, I promised Dawn I'll buy some nachos on the way, so I better hurry off now." Xander said as he quickly packed away his sealing tools and made for the door.

Kyubi roared in his mind.

_"Who is SENILE?"_

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_three days later_

The training proceeded through the rest of the week at a faster pace since the hellmouth seemed to have quieten down after Halloween. In fact the major event of the week had been when Buffy's old friend, Ford, had arrived in Sunnydale.

They had been lucky that Angel in his mistrusting nature, had asked both Willow and Xander to help him do some checking up on Ford. It turned out that Ford was dying of a terminal illness and had hatched a plan to hand over Buffy to Spike for immortality as a vampire. Of course, once Buffy had known about Ford's intents, she had been prepared. She had escaped the ambush set up for her and had staked Ford two nights ago when he had risen as a vampire. The only casualty was one of Giles' books which was stolen by a vampire.

_"Concentrate on your training."_ Kyubi snapped in Xander's head, cutting through his thoughts. _"As I was saying, the seal that I cast during Halloween night was known as a 'dimension pocket' seal. Basically the seal creates a doorway to an artificial storage dimension. _

_What I did was to have the seal trap any of the costumes and models tainted with Halloween magic into the storage dimension. That's why to you, it looked as if the costumes had disappeared from the shop in the blink of an eye. The costumes and models would remain in stasis in the dimensional pocket…"_

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

"My Key had ran away." Glory pouted as she stepped over the dead bodies of the monks. "Those stupid monks! They've used the Key's energy and hid it from me. It's not fair!"

Her minions watched in fear as Glory stomped her foot angrily onto the stone floor. The abbey shook and stray pieces of rocks tumbled from the ceiling.

"Come on, we're leaving." Glory said making her way to the door. "I might not know where it was sent to, but I sensed the direction it took. We're going to America."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_one week later_

"Man, you think you know a person and then they reveal this dark secret about themselves." Xander said to Kyubi shaking his head.

_"Well, everyone has their own dark past."_ Kyubi reasoned.

"Yeah, but this is Giles we are talking about!" Xander said as if that should matter.

They had just destroyed the Eyghon demon that had possessed Miss Calendar. Apparently, when Giles was younger, he used to mix with a bad crowd that used the Eyghon demon as a mystical high, not unlike taking drugs. It turned out that the demon somehow found its way back to the world and began killing off members of the old group.

Miss Calendar was possessed in the crossfire, and in the end, Willow came up with the idea for the Eyghon demon to possess Angel's body, whereupon Angel's vampire essence would destroy the demon. The plan had worked, which had been a relief. But Miss Calendar's relationship with Giles had become a bit strained.

"Willow came up with the plan before I could make my own seal to destroy the demon." Xander sighed. "I was hoping if the others saw first hand how useful my skills are, maybe it would be easier for them to accept that there's a five hundred year old fox demon in my head. I think I would have to tell them soon, I don't like keeping secrets from them, maybe when the next big bad come… Anyway, why are you asking me to learn the 'null personality' seal again?"

_"The costumes that were sealed away were tainted by Halloween magic. I am sure you don't want to have your personality overwritten the first time you touch any of the costumes in the seal."_ Kyubi explained. _"You'll need to use the 'null personality' seal on them for your protection. But of course, I doubt that the seal would work against those costume-dressed models that came to life."_

"Why is that?" Xander asked as he wrote the seal down. For seals that were not in physical forms, like air, space, or dimension, it was harder for him to 'see' the essence of the object, because there's nothing for him to physically 'see'.

But Naruto's memories had concurred with what Kyubi had said. 'Seeing' was more than using the physical eyes, it's the application of chakra senses to the universal truth about everything. The seal of 'null personality' consists of the two primary seals of 'null' and 'ego'. Both are abstract seals without physical form. Xander had to sit in meditation for the past few days to ponder and 'see' their real essences. He had gotten the 'null' seal right after two days, but the 'ego'…

_"I sensed that those plastic models which came to life during Halloween actually bear the essence of life itself. That means that they are actually alive."_ Kyubi reasoned. _"The current 'null personality' seal I am teaching you would at most numb their emotions for a few minutes before their own life force overwrite it. But for those costumes that were only turned __**real**__ and __**not**__ come to __**life**__, the seal would remain on them until it was broken intentionally."_

"Ok, so since I had already mastered the 'dimension walk' seal, after I master the 'null personality' seal I'll be able to safely retrieve the costumes out one by one?" Xander asked excitedly.

_"That's the plan, if you can master it in the next few days."_ Kyubi said bemused at Xander enthusiasm.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_five days later_

As was the usual habit since Halloween, Xander got up every morning at six for an hour jog. After that he would spend another hour to build up his chakra reserves. Right now, his chakra building exercise includes floating leaves above his forehead and his two open palms. What it meant was that he had to expel his chakra in precise burst to keep the leaves afloat. It not only trained his control, but it also slowly built up his chakra reserves.

After chakra training, he would move into practicing the sealing arts. But today was a special day, because for the past few days, he had created three 'dimension walk' seals and four 'null personality' seals. The number of seals he could create was limited to his chakra capacity and his rate of chakra regeneration. Kyubi had been stingy, refusing to lend Xander his demonic chakra for such trivial matters. Xander sighed, sometimes the fox was very stubborn, but now he was ready at last to retrieve some useable costumes and their respective equipments.

_"Remember what I told you. The 'dimension walk' seal would only last for as long as you have enough chakra to sustain it."_ The fox warned. _"That means it will expel you out of the dimension once your chakra is used up. Don't wait until your last drop of chakra is gone, chakra depletion is a very serious matter and can result in death._

_Move fast, your chakra reserves is not very large in the first place and you'll need a bit left over for your own survival. You'll probably only have fifteen minutes in the artificial dimension at best. I'll rather that for now you don't call upon my chakra to maintain it. Just grab whatever that looks useful."_

"Alright fox, I understand… Here goes nothing." Xander said. He took out a piece of paper with the 'dimension walk' seal written on it. In the case of this particular seal, instead of blood, it would take chakra to trigger it.

Sending a tendril of chakra into the seal, the piece of paper began crumpling into dust as the seal glowed with a blue outline, fixing itself onto Xander's left hand. He could feel his chakra began feeding into the seal just to maintain it.

Quickly he took out the piece of cloth with the 'dimension pocket' seal that Kyubi had created on Halloween night. Taking a deep breath, he touched it with his left hand.

The 'dimension pocket' and 'dimension walk' seals flared out with a bright white light, as Xander disappeared from his room.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Xander reappeared in what looked like a large grey boxed room with no doors. The various Halloween costumes and equipments were floating in mid-air of the grey room, stuck in stasis. An oppressive feeling swept over him and Xander shuddered.

"What's that?" Xander asked, reaching out with his chakra senses. The room was filled with a massive amount chakra that felt twisted to him.

_"The chaotic chakra that had turned everything real must have been trapped here as well."_ Kyubi said, analyzing the thick mass of energy in the room. _"I am temporarily blocking your chakra senses. It should help lower your nausea if you're not actively feeling the chaotic chakra."_

"Thanks fox!" Xander said gratefully. He felt the fox did something before the feeling of sickness left him.

Now that he was able to walk around without feeling sick, Xander began looking at the items the room. All the costumes were in the exact approximate positions as they were in back at the Halloween shop. Except that since the tables and shelves were not sealed in as well, most of them looked as if they were floating in mid air. When Xander saw the Darth Vader model, he gave it a wide berth. There was no way he'll release a Sith lord to the world, Sunnydale has enough problems as it was.

He looked around and saw a woman in a corner, the face was familiar and he recognized her as the android Rommie from the Andromeda TV show. There were a few other models that had gained life because of the Halloween spell but Xander didn't recognize who they were at the moment.

"Nah, I can't take the trouble of releasing real life fictional characters into Sunnydale right now." Xander said to himself as he began quickly surveying the equipments that he could bring with him back.

Rubbing away the sweat from his forehead, Xander blinked as he looked up. Several of the basketball sized spaceships models that were originally fixed onto the ceiling of the Halloween shop had turned real. There were even the ghosts of Casper, Slimer, and a few white deformed figures stuck in stasis, hanging in mid air. Shaking his head bemused, Xander walked around the table looking for stuff he could use.

_"You've seen anything yet?"_ Kyubi asked.

"Look at this!" Xander said excitedly as he paused in front of a wooden box with the words _'Final Fantasy VII materias'_. "I've played this game before. The materias are crystallized energy that grants you powers based on what class they belong to."

He opened the box to look at the pile of green, red, yellow, blue and purple marble sized materias gleaming back at him. He reached a hand out to touch them…

_"Wait, apply the 'null personality' seals onto the items first before you touch any of them."_ Kyubi cautioned.

"Oh sorry, I forgot." Xander said sheepishly as he took out one of the paper seals. He put it on one of the green materia and watched as the paper crumbled and the 'null personality' seal blazed with a yellow light, disappearing into the materia itself. Carefully he lifted that one materia, making sure he's avoiding skin contact with the rest. "I think I should wear gloves the next time. Now how do I use this materia?"

Kyubi was unable to make any useful suggestions, so Xander looked at it and tried reaching out with his rapidly depleting chakra to sense the green materia. There was an instant connection as the marble sized materia flared green before settling down with a light green glow. Xander got a sense of ice, cold and blistering, before the image disappeared from his mind.

_"Amazing!"_ Kyubi spoke up as he sensed the subtle connection that remained in Xander's mind, connecting him to the materia. _"It seems that the __**materia**__ as you call it, is semi-sentient, almost like a seal that is alive. Basically in the terms of this world, it contains the map of a spell. Should you feed chakra into it, you can cast the spell straight away, very much like the same way we are powering the seals now. In the case of this particular materia, you can only use it to cast ice."_

"That's great." Xander said with a grin as he put the ice materia into his pocket. "I'll try it when I get back home later. I only got three of the 'null personality' seals left. I'll pick one more, a yellow one."

Quickly, Xander neutralized the Halloween personality on that particular stone and placed it in his pocket. He would use his chakra to connect to it later, but right now his chakra was running low and he hoped to get two more items before his chakra ran out, expelling him into the physical world.

He walked around, browsing through the items near him.

"Fox, you have any theories what would happen if I put on an X-men costume? Since it's not exactly an equipment or tool that I could just use." Xander asked, pausing at the pile of X-men costumes with their belts, spandex outfits and gloves.

_"Well, from your memories of the X-men, I could volunteer a theory. Should you put on a piece of those costumes, after its personality had been turned null, you might experience a change in your physical body as long as you have the costume on. In short, your body will have an x-gene while the costume is on, but revert back to normal once it is taken off."_ Kyubi continued seriously. _"But I am not sure what the long term effect to your body would be if you keep taking it on and off, since this is a physical change we are talking about here."_

"Hmm… that does sounds dangerous." Xander stared at the costumes and knew he could not take too long to ponder as he quickly made his decision. "But the nerd in me finds it hard to resist becoming a mutant if only just for once. I'll just take a set of gloves since the belts and the costumes are too tacky to use in public. If you notice anything dangerous happening to my body when I put it on, we'll return it back here."

_"Your choice."_ Kyubi said with a sigh. He watched as Xander applied the 'null personality' seal to a pair of gloves, which he quickly tucked into his pockets. _"Hurry up Xander, your chakra is almost used up, and I am not lending you my chakra for a shopping trip. You've only got a few more minutes before your chakra reserves dropped to dangerous levels. It's not worth it to suffer the effects of chakra depletion just for a few costumes."_

"I'm hurrying! I'm hurrying!" Xander said as he quickly moved to where the guns were. With a quick glance, he neutralized the Halloween personality on one of the more cool looking high tech guns and clutched it to his chest. "Alright I'm done."

Xander cut off his flow of chakra to the 'dimension walk' seal on his left hand. The seal flared out, consuming Xander in a bright white light…

Xander felt a sense of disorientation as the seal dumped him back into his room. A wave of chaotic chakra suddenly emitted from the Halloween costumes he had brought out in one gigantic pulse, knocking him backwards. Xander looked around dazedly for a moment in shock.

"What the hell happened?" Xander asked lifting up the materias, gun and gloves extending out his chakra senses to check them.

_"It appeared that the chaotic energies that were sealed in the storage dimension had attached themselves onto the Halloween costumes and objects."_ Kyubi mused. _"Now that you've brought some of the items out, the chaotic energies lingering around these items themselves were freed and dispersed into the real world._

"So what will happen to those chaotic energies?" Xander asked uneasily.

_"I don't know. It is difficult to tell how energies of such chaotic nature would act."_ Kyubi said. _"We'll just have to keep an eye out for anything unusual."_

"I hope nothing weird's gonna happen, I am too drained of chakra to think straight right now. I think I'll rest a while, wait for my chakra to recover before trying out what I've just brought back." Xander said collapsing on bed.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Willow frowned as she put down the phone.

"Who's that?" Buffy asked.

It was a Saturday, which meant group patrol time. As usual, they had gathered at the reconstructed library waiting for night to fall before going out to patrol the surrounding cemeteries. The only thing different tonight was that Xander was not here yet. Giles had retreated into his office while they wait for him.

"That's Xander." Willow said, her face scrunched up in thoughts. "He said he wasn't feeling well so he's skipping patrol tonight."

Buffy blinked owlishly.

"Did I hear you correctly? Xander willingly skip group patrol night?" Buffy asked incredulously. "No matter how sick he got in the past, he always came… But of course if he's really sick, staying at home is a sensible idea."

"Well, it still doesn't sound like him. Maybe we should drop by his home later." Willow said worriedly. "He hasn't been himself lately. Did you notice that he seem to be a bit strained around us since Halloween?"

"Yeah I got that feeling too, if I am the suspicious kind of person, I'll say he's hiding something from us…" Buffy mused as she prepared her stakes and holy water.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Xander looked in amazement as the pen he was holding turned into a bar of gold.

"The yellow materia allows me to morph any object I want!" Xander said in amazement. "This is so cool! I have my own money making machine right here! I wonder if the change's permanent."

_"The change's permanent, I can sense that, but the gold doesn't look right."_ Kyubi commented. _"The shape and color matches your mental image of gold, but something still seems wrong."_

Xander frowned, poking at the gold bar. It sagged, leaving a large Xander shaped fingerprint in the middle of the 'gold' bar.

"Why isn't it working?" Xander asked in frustration.

_"Maybe to morph a thing, you need to understand what it is."_ Kyubi suggested. _"Perhaps just like creating a seal, you also need to understand the essence of an object to morph it correctly."_

"Well in that case I will morph it into paper since I already 'saw' what the essence of paper is like." Xander said as he sent a trickle of chakra into the yellow materia.

He pictured the essence of paper and willed the 'gold' bar to change…

The 'gold' bar blurred and molded itself into paper. Xander connect to the object with his chakra senses and found the morphed object to bear the correct essence of paper. Reaching out his hands, Xander felt its texture.

"Well it looks and feels like paper now. You got the right idea Kyubi." Xander remarked. "Hmm fox, can you pass me Naruto's memories for the essence of gold just this once? I know it's materialistic of me, but I don't mind having a few gold bars I can pawn off for extra cash…"

_"If you're looking at me to validate your human morals, you're asking the wrong demon, I could hardly care less if you use your powers for wealth. In fact I used to have several __**caves**__ full of treasures."_ Kyubi said with a proud sniff. _"Anyway, just this once, here's what the essence of gold feels and looks like."_

The memory flashed in his mind. With his tongue in his cheek, Xander began to turn the paper into gold…

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In the middle of the woods, at the edge of Sunnydale, the air rippled as the chaotic energies gathered and began changing into something new.

A portal appeared in the middle of the clearing, and seconds later, a figure began emerging from the portal.

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Four bars of gold sat on his table sparkling under the table lamp. Of course, now he was less a pen, a pair of old shoes, an old bowling ball and a dictionary.

"I am rich." Xander said with a grin.

During the time he mold the gold, Xander also did an experiment to find out how far the materias could be from him for him to use it. He found out that once the materia was two feet away from Xander, the connection to the materia would terminate. If Xander wanted to use the materia again, he would have to reconnect to it with his chakra.

Xander also found out that it was easier to morph an object into the equal mass of its original object. If the morphed object had a higher or lower mass compared to its original, lots of chakra would be consumed to change the structure of the object. The first time he tried to make a bigger gold bar with a piece of paper, he had to stop because he didn't had enough chakra to sustain the change, what had appeared was a mushy gold like substance.

_"I don't understand why you stop after four bars."_ Kyubi reflected. _"If it's me, I'll keep on going as long as I got the chakra."_

"I don't want to invite trouble or become too greedy. I can always make more next time." Xander explained, gathering up the gold bars and putting them into his bag. "Anyway I want to try out the rest of the stuff I brought back. I am putting on the gloves first, so let me know if anything happens to my body, fox."

Kyubi gave a grunt of acknowledgement as Xander put on the X-Men's gloves. A slight tingle went trough his body, but nothing else seemed to be happening.

"Huh…" Xander said disappointed. "I don't feel anything change."

_"Well, your body structure did change, so something must have happened."_ Kyubi said, sweeping his chakra over Xander's body.

"Well, if I did change, then something should happen." Xander said with a frown. "But I don't feel any hidden access to any powers."

Getting up, he gave an experimental flung of his hands, he gave a start as sparks flew out of his hands.

"Wow! Sparks." Xander said looking at his gloved hands in surprise. "The only one I knew with powers like that in X-men is Jubilee… So that means I got her powers. I think Jubilee's powers are mostly related to projecting light base energy, that can be helpful against the vampires."

"I suppose it could be useful." Kyubi conceded. "But I'll advice you not to rely too much on it. You've a real talent in the Sealing Arts, and a powerful Seal Master is able to do many miraculous things with seals."

"I know, I still got a bit of Naruto's memories left. A low level Seal Master can defeat a powerful ninja with careful planning." Xander said taking off the gloves and picking up the ray gun. "I am also planning to keep my promise to complete the seal needed to free you. To do that, I'll need to study sealing from scratch."

_"I am glad you understand."_ Kyubi said as Xander began walking towards the door. _"So where are you going?"_

Kyubi might have been able to access his thoughts to find out where he was going, but in the past few weeks, Xander had reached an arrangement with the fox to give him some mental privacy. The fox agreed to barge into his thoughts and take control only if he was in danger, in the meantime, Xander had his own personal space.

"For now, I'm taking a trip out to pawn some gold, and when night comes, it is ray gun testing time." Xander said with a grin.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

"Things sure are quiet today." Willow said as she combed the cemetery with Buffy, a supersoaker filled with holy water was in her hands. Two more bottles of holy water rested in her bag, slung across her shoulder.

"Yes, too quiet." Buffy said with a frown. "Even the insects have stopped chirping."

Willow paused, listening.

"You're right." Willow said in surprise. "It's totally silent."

Something rustled in the woods near the graveyard. Buffy carefully held her sword in front of her while Willow aim her supersoaker in the direction the noise was coming from. They gasped as they saw what came out.

"Buffy, am I having a nightmare?" Willow moaned.

"No Wills." Buffy said in a strained whisper. "Not if you're talking about the Jurrasic Park T-Rex look alike."

The Tyrannosaurus poked its head out of the trees and began sniffing the air, swiveling its head around.

"It's at least 30 feet tall, how are we going to slay something like that?" Willow asked in fear, taking a step back, her breaths coming out fast.

"We don't." Buffy said as the T-Rex's eyes came to rest on them. "Willow! RUN!"

Willow squeaked as Buffy grabbed her and they began running for the streets. The ground shook as the T-Rex gave a roar and chased after them.

Buffy slowed down just enough so that she's at pace with Willow, not willing to leave her behind. She looked back and saw that the T-Rex was already only a few feet behind them.

"This isn't going to work." She turned and braced herself for the incoming dinosaur, drawing her sword. "Willow, continue running, I'll hold it off until you're safe."

"But…" Willow protested, her breaths coming out in short quick pants.

"Willow! Now's not the time to argue or we'll both be eaten! Get Giles!" Buffy called in a loud voice.

Willow swallowed, feeling fear and guilt as she left Buffy behind, running for the streets. She made it to the main road and looked back, giving a fearful cry as she saw Buffy went down beneath the dinosaur. She was about to run back to help her friend when a beam of light flew past her, striking the T-Rex's head, burning a huge hole in it.

The T-Rex gave a shrill kneeling cry before it collapsed onto the ground. Willow stood there stunned as someone walked up beside her. She turned around and saw Xander standing there with an angry look on his face and a gun of some sort in his hands.

"Xander? What's going on?" Willow asked, her voice shaking from the fright of encountering a T-Rex and the relief that the creature was dead.

"We'll talk later." Xander said, putting an arm around her. "First we need to make sure Buffy's ok."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Xander felt a heavy weight in his heart as he walked up to where Buffy was still lying on the ground, trapped beneath one of the foot of the T-Rex. He had the sinking feeling that the appearance of the T-Rex was somehow connected to the chaotic chakra he had unknowingly unleashed when he took the four Halloween items out of storage.

After he had pawned the bars of gold off at one of the pawn shop, he had wandered the streets looking for stray vampires to do some target practice. He had reached the western part of Sunnydale when the fox had suddenly said that he sensed a strong surge of chaotic chakra in the distance. Following the Kyubi's directions, he had ran towards the Greenhill cemetery and found to his disbelief that Buffy was doing battle with a T-Rex, while Willow was running paled-faced towards him.

He had attempted to fire a shot at the T-Rex to frighten it off. But he had not counted on the strong powerful beam of light energy that came out of the gun and his luck which had guided his aim. He had blown a hole in the T-Rex's head with his first shot, killing it.

"Buffy!" Willow cried in alarm, running up to her friend. "Are you alright? Oh no Xander what are we going to do!"

"Willow, you're babbling." Buffy said with a weak grin, coughing out blood. "I don't think I'll ever hear see you guys again… I think the big guy there cracked one of my ribs, my chest isn't feeling so good."

"Stand back Wills." Xander said as he lifted the gun.

Willow stood back and watched in amazement as Xander fired several light energy from the weapon in his hands, cutting off the leg at its knee.

"That's cool, so you're the one that killed it." Buffy said in a hoarse whisper. "Not that I'm not glad to see you, but what are you doing here Xander? And where did you get that gun thingie?"

"Later, Buffy." Xander said grimly as he reached down and tried to trudge the giant foot off. "I'll explain later when we're somewhere safe and in no more danger."

Buffy heaved from beneath while Xander and Willow tugged at the edges. The foot moved a bit to allow Buffy to slide through. Buffy collapsed onto the ground, freed from the pressing weight on her chest, giving a weak cry.

"Stay where you are Buffy." Xander said walking up to her, his hands dripping with the blood from the T-Rex.

"Xander! What are you doing?" Buffy grimaced in shock as Xander pressed her down and began drawing the blood onto her chest with a gentle touch.

"Keep still." Xander said, placing his hand on her chest.

Buffy gasped as warmth filled her body and the pain began to leave her.

"Xander what did you do?" Willow said staring at the glowing symbol on Buffy's clothes in shock.

"I've set a temporarily healing seal on her." Xander said, helping Buffy up. "Buffy should be able to walk back to the library now. Willow, help Buffy back, tell Giles what happen, I'll explain when I get back."

"Wait a minute Xander. I think you own us some explanations right now." Buffy said firmly. "Since when did you learn magic, and where are you going?"

"It's not really magic. And just trust me for now." Xander said his eyes grim. He pointed to the nearby woods. "Whatever sent the T-Rex here is still there, I can sense it. I need to stop the source or there might be more of those creatures roaming around Sunnydale."

"More of those creatures… oh god, that's ultra bad. Dealing with whatever has sent the creature here is more important right now. But Xander, you promise you will tell us everything after that?" Buffy asked. At Xander's affirmative nod, she scoped up her sword lying by the T-Rex and turned to Xander. "Well? What are you waiting for? I am not going to let my best friend face some unknown danger alone."

"Yeah, Xander, I am going with you too." Willow said standing beside Buffy.

Xander sighed. "Alright stay behind me, I am the one with the futuristic weapon."

"Huh?" Buffy asked. "What do you mean by futuristic weapon?"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Following behind Xander as he played Rambo with his gun while Buffy tagged at the rear on the look out for any dangers behind, Willow had a sudden sense of being stuck in the twilight zone. Everything just felt so surreal, like the fact that Xander could use magic even though he insisted what he had done to Buffy was not magic. There was also the gun which Xander had called a futuristic weapon and refused to comment about it after he was asked.

They had entered the woods and found a trail of fallen trees that marked the T-Rex's path. Xander had commented that the T-Rex was probably lying in wait at the edge of the wood waiting for a snack when Buffy and Willow had come along. Willow still felt a bit skirtish thinking about it. Xander had made another symbol on all their hands which had began emitting a soft yellow light, allowing them to see in the dark.

"We're here." Xander said as they stepped into a clearing.

"Alright, where are the bad guys?" Buffy said bringing out her sword.

Willow pulled at Buffy's sleeve and pointed at the white sparkling glowing portal in front of them.

"I think Xander's talking about the portal." Willow explained.

"Well, I don't see how a portal can send a T-Rex here." Buffy said. "But anyway, if it is the cause, how are we going to close it?"

"Lend me your sword." Xander said reaching out a hand to Buffy.

Buffy hesitated for a moment before passing the sword to him. Xander passed the gun to her and she gave a grin as she forgot all about her sword and began exploring the weapon that had killed the T-Rex. Her fascination lasted until Xander began using the sword to scratch the dirt in the ground.

"Hey! What are you doing to my sword?" Buffy called out indignantly as Xander began sketching out symbols in the dirt. "Giles will kill me if the sword is dulled."

"I am trying to close the portal. Give me some space." Xander said waving them back. "And the sword can be sharpened again. I'd rather not be a meal ticket for whatever else comes out of the portal next."

"Alright, but I am telling Giles that you're the one that did the deed to his precious Watcher issued sword." Buffy said grumbling as she stepped back to give Xander space.

Willow and Buffy watched curiously as Xander began drawing a series of complicated symbols around the portal, stopping at times to mutter to himself. After a while, Buffy grew bored and began fiddling with the gun. Willow continued to watch Xander, amazed at what he was doing. Something flickered out of the corner of her eye. Willow felt a chill creeping down her body as a shadow in the portal began to stir. She gave a scream as the head of what looked like another dinosaur emerged from the portal. It looked around, baring its knife like teeth at them.

"Xander! How do I use this thing?" Buffy screamed, fumbling with the gun.

"Oh never mind." Buffy said as her hands found the trigger before Xander could answer.

She quickly aimed the gun at the dinosaur jerking back in fright as a beam of light energy shot out, striking the ground in front of the portal. Dirt sprayed everywhere as the beam of light gorged a deep hole in the ground. The dinosaur gave a startled roar, rearing its head back into the portal. For a moment there was total silence, then Xander began swearing.

"There's no time for lessons fox! You've to take over my body now and shut down the damn thing! Or the next thing we know, a herd of those things would be coming out of the portal to eat us!" Xander shouted agitatedly.

"Xander are you alright?" Willow asked worriedly.

Xander did not answer her as he suddenly stiffened. Willow gasped as flickers of red energy burst out from Xander's body, surrounding him. His eyes became foxed like, glowing with an unearthly red.

"Oh my god." Buffy cried, clutching the gun to her chest. She shuddered as her Slayer senses began to cry out to her that this new Xander was very very dangerous.

They watched in shock as the tendrils of red light struck the ground, tracing out symbols at great speed. Xander looked like he was wrapped in living flames, all his focus was on the ground. When the last symbol was completed, the forest floor began glowing with a deep blue light, emitting waves of purifying energies. The portal began to ripple and then dissolved into itself. Within seconds, the portal had disappeared.

The red flames died out and Xander flopped to the ground with a dull thud. Willow and Buffy quickly rushed towards him.

"He's still alive." Willow said checking Xander's pulse before turning to Buffy. "And he doesn't look injured."

"What the hell was that all about?" Buffy asked wide eyed. "All that magic and stuff, what have happened to Xander?"

"I don't know." Willow said looking lost and afraid as she gazed down at her long time friend. "When did we lose our Xander? ..."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Spike made his way quickly from the woods, unseen by the Slayer and her friends. His mouth was dry as he recalled what he had just seen.

He had seen the Slayer and her friends in the graveyard with a huge dinosaur carcass on the ground beside them. Having caught only the back end of the fight, he had followed them when they had went into the woods, to find out what was the Slayer up to and why a dinosaur had appeared in Sunnydale. In the shadows of the trees, he had seen everything, the portal, the other dinosaur that had tried to come out, the gun that the Slayer had used and then the boy, whom he had thought was just another of the Slayer's hanger-ons, had suddenly summoned a powerful burst of demonic powers to close the portal.

Even now, just thinking about the magnitude of demonic powers the boy had released was enough to make Spike's knee weak.

"I've got to change my plans. It's best not to draw the attention of a demon with so much raw power." Spike muttered with a shiver as he ran back to his lair. "What is the Slayer thinking? First making out with Angelus, now friends with a high level demon?"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**References:**

_Kyubi: a nine tailed fox demon._

_Naruto: a ninja from the anime and manga Naruto._

_Chakra: physical and spiritual energy that one generates. In my story, it's same as the energy used by willow and the others to cast spells._

_Seals: complex formulaic magic that is able to seal away objects or allow other feats._

_Jutsu: in my story, is the ninja equivalent of a magic spell._

**Halloween Costumes and Equipments Crossovers:**

_X-Men gloves: From X-Men comics_

_Materia: From Final Fantasy VII game_

_Ray gun: No particular fandom, just a bit of sci-fi stuff I added for my interest_

**Current Halloween Equipments of Xander Harris:**

_X-Men gloves: triggering Jubilee's X-gene._

_Materia: 1) Green Materia – ICE – ability to cast the ICE spell_

_ 2) Yellow Materia – MORPH – ability to morph user or objects into any object_

_Ray gun: condensed light energy_

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**Author's Notes:** Alright! Xander gets his first 'toys' from the Halloween storage area. I have doubled checked this chapter around three four times, couldn't remember cause I leave it for a day or two each time before re-reading it again. Easier for me to catch the mistakes.

Some of you guys who have watched Primeval might be asking why the portal opened by the chaos energies are not acting like the portals in the TV show itself. Well, there's a reason for it, it'll be explained much much later in the chapters. :)

And for those that are worried that the scobbys can just switch costumes any old how, things don't work out that way, not in my story that is, there'll be consequences for Xander and guys in the future.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_* I am taking liberties with the materias from Final Fantasy VII. It just doesn't make sense to me why the normal humans in the game never used the materias for more practical purposes since the game had so many materias with so many cool powers lying around. For info, there really is a 'morph' materia in the game, it's been very long since I last play the game, but according to gamefaq, it's supposed to turn defeated enemies into objects. _

_In this case, Xander's using it to create gold and stuff._


	4. Chapter 4

**4. Chapter Four: Because of the Balance**

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**Summary: **One Halloween Night changed everything for Xander. Agreeing to a contract with the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon for power, he unknowingly unleashed great evils to the world... changing everything for the Scobby Gang. Buffy/Naruto/Multiple Crossovers

**Crossover: **Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

**Book Title: **Master of the Forbidden Seals

**Author: **Wraithrune

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters, objects or plots from Buffy the vampire slayer, Andromeda, Star Wars, Stargate SG-1, Casper the friendly ghost, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Ghostbusters, Final Fantasy VII, X-Men, Primeval and Naruto. This is just a work of fanfiction. I claim **none **of the TV, anime, books, or game series plots or characters that were used in my story _(just in case I forget to write a fandom I've used)_

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**Chapter Four: Because of the Balance**

_"You are my bestest friend, Xander, you and Willow. Remember the first time we met?..."_

_~ Jesse Mcnally, one of the forefathers of the Intergalactic Watcher's Council_

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Xander felt drained and tired. The last thing he remembered was Kyubi taking over his body, and the demonic chakra flowing through his cells, causing him to surge with power. He remembered seeing the portal closing before he had fainted. Xander looked around him, he seemed to be in a garden of some sort. Xander blinked, it was a garden with statues of Spiderman, Iron man, and…

"Jesse?" Xander felt his voice caught in his throat as he saw the familiar figure walking towards him with a smile.

"Hi Xan-man, long time no see." Jesse said with a grin. "Welcome to my garden."

"But… but how? You're dead, I… I stake you myself." Xander stuttered staring in disbelief at his long time friend.

"Hey chill man, I was long gone from that body when I became a vampire." Jesse said sensing the pain in Xander's voice. "Only my memories were left, which the demonic essence of the vampire used to taunt you with. Anyway thanks for killing it, I wouldn't have wanted a demon to use my body to suck the blood of others."

Xander felt his eyes tear as he stepped forward and pulled Jesse into a hug.

"You are really real!" Xander exclaimed in shock when Jesse felt solid. "If you're dead, does that means I am dead too? Come to think of it, I can't hear the fox anywhere in my head."

"No, you're not dead." Jesse as his face changed to a serious look. "But you were brought here so that I could give you a warning."

"A warning?" Xander asked looking askew at one of his best childhood friend.

"Yes Xander, about what you've unleashed on Halloween night and what will happen." Jesse said waving his hand.

Xander felt power erupting from Jesse's hands through his chakra senses and stared at his best friend in shock. The garden faded away and Xander found himself floating in the blackness of space, staring down at a planet below him.

"Xander, the deal you made with the Kyubi caused complication." Jesse said as they started zooming down towards the planet, Xander watched wide-eyed as they pierced through the clouds and he saw land below. Land that was overrun with demons.

"The Kyubi using the remains of the Halloween spell, forced himself onto this reality. A great amount of chaos was released and though the Powers that Be knew that neither you nor the Kyubi have evil intentions, this was the result." Jesse continued. Xander paled as Jesse pointed at the demonic hordes below them, giving Xander a pitying look.

"Active hellmouths all over our dimension began opening, releasing into our reality creatures that were not native here. On planets that do not have chosen champions with the powers to close back the hellmouths, this is what happened." Jesse said with a grimace, pointing to the massive tide of demons below him.

"Oh God…" Xander said weakly, feeling his world come crashing down. He, Xander had released untold numbers of demons into the universe. "What have I done?"

"What happened is not under your direct control and there's no use for you to blame yourself. I am not telling all this to lay the blame on you. I am telling you this because in this current time, _you_, and only you alone possesses the powers and resources to fix this massive problem." Jesse said seeing Xander's eyes widen. "We know that you have a storage of Halloween costumes turned real. If you use them wisely, the technological and magical powers of those costumes will allow you to travel to the other planets that have been overrun and close the hellmouths that were opened."

"It's all because I agreed to Kyubi's deal." Xander said in self hate. "I thought if I got powers of my own, I could help Buffy but…"

"Xander!" Jesse said sharply causing Xander to snap out of his self pity and looked up at him. "What's done is done, you can still help these planets if you act now and use your gifts wisely. If it helps Xander, the path you've taken now was one of the several paths that were foreseen by the Powers that Be. The Powers that Be are the higher powers that are answerable to the Creator himself, they have seen the path you'll take, yet they chose to allow you to walk that path with your own free will because of the amount of good that you might do in the future.

It was a calculated risk on their part as they have no way of knowing for sure if you will chose to use your new found powers for good or evil. You've several destinies assigned to you from the moment you're born, not as a side kick of the Slayer, but rather you and Willow are some of the many champions that are suppose to _work_ together with the Slayer. Try asking your Giles friend about the 'Sheng Yen' prophecies, it was a book of prophecies made about you long before you were born."

"Prophecies?" Xander asked looking at his friend incredulously. "I have prophecies about me?"

"Yes, you , Willow, even me…" Jesse said with a sad chuckle. "But while fate has already decided the path I will walk, you and Willow can still make your own choices. Just because you guys have a bunch of destinies assigned to you guys doesn't mean you don't have free will. You could always choose to walk away… and let this planet like many others suffer…"

"How many? How many planets were affected?" Xander asked in a strained voice.

"Altogether, active hellmouths on 109 planets were opened during Halloween night, the hellmouths on 78 planets were since closed by the native inhabitants on the respective planets, so that leave you with 31 planets with open hellmouths." Jesse said simply as if listing out facts. "Words of warning, the hellmouths are actually places where the reality of this dimension is the weakest. Most of them led to dimensions filled with demons, but some led to other realities where the inhabitants do not actively seek death and destruction of other races."

Xander blinked as the planet with the demon horde under them faded away. The scene changed and he found himself somewhere else looking at what looked like a community of humans co-existing with… fairies, and elves.

"For instance, on this planet, the hellmouth led to the fey realms, the elves and fairies have actually struck a contract with the people on this planet, helping them. They even went so far as helping them chased off their alien invaders, some parasitic alien race called the Goa'uld who were impersonating as Gods." Jesse said looking at Xander. "You'll have to use your own judgment once you've the power to close the hellmouths and space travel, whether you wish to strike an alliance with these creatures, or to force them back to their dimension. The official word from above however is that if they are non hostile, the Powers that Be advise you to befriend them."

Xander looked dazed. "And I am supposed to accomplish all these on my own?"

"No, you're supposed to enlist the help of other champions." Jesse said patiently. "Look Xander I know you're feeling guilty and confused right now, but you're the only one who have the power and resources to change things. You can always walk away, but as a friend I advice you to take responsibility. Learn to master the powers that the Kyubi is teaching you, harness the magical and technological advantages that the Halloween costumes can give you and do the right thing. Because if you're not there to stop them, sooner or later, they _will_ consume this dimension. Some of the demons or creatures coming through the hellmouths are space faring."

"Oh shit! Space traveling demons, this is just my luck." Xander groaned.

"Well, the Xan-man's luck always tends to suck." Jesse said with a grin. "Even when it started out as a good kind of luck."

"Yeah it does. But why tell me about all this now?" Xander asked looking at Jesse. "Why didn't you come to me during Halloween night?"

"The Powers that Be wanted you to get used to your powers before I come to you." Jesse said, his grin fading. "There wasn't much you can do then that will make a difference anyway. I was only prepared to contact you when you first attempted to access the Halloween costumes that the Kyubi had sealed."

"Prepared to contact me?" Xander asked with a frown. "That's a funny way to talk to your old buddy Jesse."

"I am a mouth piece for the Powers now Xan-man. Meeting you here isn't all leisure, it's mainly because it's my job." Jesse said with a sigh. He looked at Xander before continuing. "Another thing, you must have felt the chaos that escaped from the storage seal when you brought the items out hadn't you?"

"Ah yes, Kyubi mentioned it might be what created the portal that allowed the dinosaur to cross over." Xander said uneasily. "If that's the case, I can't really take anymore costumes out to help me."

"At least not until you learn to do something about the chaotic energy. Because of the nature of the Halloween costumes, the residue chaos in your storage dimension tends to attach itself to the costumes, following the costumes out to the real world." Jesse said wagging his eyebrows at Xander. "But then you're the Seal-man now, I think you can do something about it."

"Is that a word of advice?" Xander asked looking at Jesse for confirmation.

"Yes it is, the chaotic energies that's released, though not reaching the strength of what was unleashed on Halloween night, was enough to cause temporal distortion in this dimension itself." Jesse said. "Even though I kind of like dinosaurs when they are toys, I don't think you'll be happy about _real_ creatures from the past and future visiting you."

"Past and future?" Xander grimaced, feeling a headache coming on. "I've enough problems as it is now. Any more advice or words of doom you want to doll out Sage Jesse?"

Jesse rolled his eyes, smiling at his friend. "Not really, but on a side note, I've always like Rommie from Andromeda in the TV shows. She could be a great help to start off your space travel plans. Once you roped her to your cause that is. Remember, even though she's created from chaos like the rest of the costumes, she's now a living creature free to make her own choices."

"So I am supposed to take her out of stasis and then somehow convince her to help me? Once I found some way to deal with the chaos that will be released from storage?" Xander asked looking at his friend for some answers.

"Figure it out on your own Xander." Jesse said with a good natured grin. "I am supposed to only give your cryptic comments to guide you so that you still have free will to maneuver around. You're smart enough to know what I am saying."

"But Jesse…" Xander paused in shock as Jesse began fading away.

Jesse looked at Xander and then gave a sad smile.

"Say hello to Willow for me will you? I never did say goodbye to her."

Xander felt a lump of sadness stuck in his throat as Jesse disappeared from view. Everything turned foggy and then… He woke up.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

"Hiding, hiding, we are hiding." Drusilla sang as Spike hustled her into the car.

"The slayer and her pals have gotten too powerful for us to deal with now." Spike said looking around anxiously to make sure no one had seen them. "We need to leave town and then decode the book of vampire spells we've stolen from that stuffy old watcher. I promise you kitten, we'll find a way to heal you. We just need to get out of here alive."

"We must hide, hide until Daddy comes home…" Drusilla sang, oblivious to Spike as he quickly drove them out of Sunnydale.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

"So you've a powerful fox demon in your head that caused _active_ hellmouths all over the planets to open?" Giles asked in a rather loud and agitated voice.

Xander grimaced. He had woken up to find himself on a table in the library with Buffy, Willow and Giles looking anxiously at him. After Buffy had demanded an explanation for what happened tonight, he had proceeded to tell them of Halloween night and Jesse's warning.

At first they had only shown disbelief, but they have no choice but to believe him once he had shown them the costumes items he had brought out and the seals he could do. It took a shower of sparks from Jubilee's gloves and making a few chakra seals to convince Giles and the others that he was not delusional and that what he had told them was the truth.

Giles was radiating serious anger about not been told of this potential danger sooner, Willow was red eyed and sniffing in a corner after he had passed her Jesse's message, Buffy was alternating between shock and amazement and the Kyubi was rummaging in his brain for the memories of the meeting with Jesse.

"Yes Giles." Xander said hoping the normally calm watcher would cool down. "I didn't tell you guys at first because I was scared what your reactions would be. I have dim recollections of Naruto being ostracized by his villagers because he was host to the demon and it sort of affected me, I didn't want to lose you guys and I wanted to have some time to get used to my powers as well."

"That's foolish Xander, we'll never turn against you just because you've a demon inside you." Buffy spoke up. "After all you said the demon is good now right? It's a bit like what Angel is now."

"Sorry… It's just I have this whole plan of showing you guys how useful I've become…" Xander trailed off weakly. "Of course now I know I am possibly responsible for the destruction of several planets."

_"I am sorry kid."_ Kyubi said in his mind. Xander felt the regret in his voice.

_"You didn't mean to, none of us did."_ Xander thought back with guilt.

"Now's not the time to assign blame, incredulous as it is for me to believe that your actions had caused hellmouths on other planets to open." Giles said giving a sigh as he calmed down. "We need to plan out what we must do next, the Watcher's Council must be told what happened. This Jesse told you to use your Halloween costumes to begin your 'space travels', so I think you should probably first deal with a way to prevent the chaotic energies from being released into the world every time you take out the costumes. Buffy and Willow could help me with my research into this 'Sheng Yen' prophecy that Jesse was talking about. It might help us understand what we should do next."

"It's hard to imagine that we've to find a way to space travel to save other planets from destructions. Sunnydale is already a handful for me to handle even with you guys to help out… My mind just can't wrap around all these information now… added to that, you have prophecies made about you too Xander." Buffy said in a tone of amazement, shock and a hint of sadness. "Willow as well if what Jesse said was true. I had always hoped you guys would have the normal life that I can never have. Guess none of us can ever be normal now."

"Sorry Buffy, but normal never did define us. Not when we realize demons are real and we're living on the hellmouth." Xander said pointing to the set of gloves on the table, with the ray gun, ice and morph materias. "I think before I find a way to bring out more costumes we can use, the ray gun will be our trump card against powerful demons.

Willow can have Jubilee's gloves. As for the materia, currently only Giles and I can use them. Giles because he knows how to use magic, and me because I know how to use chakra, which is actually the same as magic in this world. Giles, you take the ice materia and try it out for now, I'll keep the morph materia. Buffy… Buffy has her Slayer powers so she should be alright for now."

"Well if you don't mind." Giles said, moving forward to take up the green materia which was the size of a marble. "How do you use it?"

"Just send a trickle of your magic into it to connect with it." Xander explained.

Giles frowned before a look of understanding crossed his face as the green materia began glowing with a soft green light. "Ah I see, amazing."

"Wow, you guys are making me feel envious." Buffy commented as she watched Giles summon several ice blots above his palms before dispelling them.

"No need to be envious." Xander said, moving a hand tiredly across his face. "Once I am done, all of you would be outfitted with special equipments to ensure that we'll survive hellmouth long enough to actually discover space travels… I am the cause of those demon infested planets… If there's a way I could free those planets, I'll do everything in my power for that goal to be reached."

"Xander… you didn't know what would happen then." Willow said softly.

"No, but I know now." Xander said, his shoulders sagging wearily. "I **will** find how to travel to those planets, and close off the hellmouths that I've helped opened, if it is the last thing I'll ever do."

Buffy walked to his side and pat his shoulders comfortingly. "And we'll be beside you, every step of the way… Space travel… I guess we're moving up in the world…"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

"You've got to be kidding me!" Mayor Wilkins said as he looked at the dinosaur carcass that lay on the grass, part of its feet severed off. "What is a dinosaur doing in my town?"

"I will try to find out sir." Deputy Mayor Finch said nervously as he stood beside the Mayor. The whole cemetery had been cordoned off by Sunnydale's police and they had been sworn to keep silent. "I've in the meantime, made sure that the civilian who had reported the case had been dealt with."

"Good, good, wouldn't want the whole world to suddenly notice small little Sunnydale now would we?" The Mayor said looking at Finch with a dark look in his eye. "Find out who unleashed this monster into my town and what killed it. Any unidentified power mongers running around this town is a danger to my plans. Send word to those demons under our pay and find out what they know."

"Yes sir! I'll do it right away sir!" Finch said hurrying off.

"Terrible, terrible." The Mayor said looking down at the dinosaur. "Such a big hole in its head too. It would have looked nice hanging over my fireplace."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Xander sighed wearily as he crumpled another piece of paper. It was filled with mock designs of the new seals he's trying to create, to deal with the chaos energies.

_"Perhaps, it might be best for me to give you the answer."_ Kyubi said in his mind. _"I had years of experience learning Sealing with Naruto, I am a master of seals in my own right. Creating a seal to deal with chaos is but a small feat to me."_

"But not to me." Xander spoke up. "I have to learn Kyubi, I can't keep relying on you. Especially now that I know I might have to battle thousands of demons to free the planets that had fallen to the hellmouths. Once I free you, I'll need to rely on my own powers to deal with them."

There was an uncomfortable silence as Xander started drawing out rough sketches of the seal design he wanted to create.

_"I will stay with you until the lastd hellmouth is closed."_ Kyubi said, his voice sounded rough. _"Even if you or I found a way to finish Naruto's seal to free me. What happened is more of my fault than yours. You should not be the only one that takes responsibility."_

"There's no need for you to do that." Xander said with a sigh. "I am at fault as well, and it is highly possible that I cannot even save all the planets that are under demonic control in my life time, then you'll be trapped within me for as long as I live. Heck, I don't even know how I am supposed to get a spaceship in the first place!"

"Your friend, Jesse, would not have given you the warning to act if there's no way for you to help those planets." Kyubi said wisely. _"He did hint for you to free that android in the storage dimension. Once we've done that, we just have to take one step at a time and see how things turn out. If need be, I'll stay with you till the day you die."_

Xander closed his eyes and lean his weary head against the back of the chair.

"Thanks fox." Xander said in gratitude. "I feel better now that I don't have to shoulder this burden alone."

_"So how about letting me create that chaos seal for you?"_ Kyubi asked.

"Give me one day fox." Xander said, rubbing his eyes. "If I can advance in the Sealing arts on my own, it'll be all of the good. But I am not that stubborn that I'll refuse help. If I can't do it within a day then you can help me."

_"Alright then, try your best Xander."_ Kyubi said as he settled down to nap.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

The phone was ringing, and since Mom was out grocery shopping, it was up to her as usual to pick up the phone.

Dawn sighed as she got up from the sofa where she was watching the TV.

"Hello?" Dawn asked as she picked up the phone, frowning at the ceiling. Buffy was probably upstairs in her room pretending she could not hear the phone.

"Dawn?" Xander's voice said tiredly. "Do you mind getting Buffy here for me?"

"Oh it's you Xander!" Dawn said excitedly. Xander was her one and only crush ever since Buffy had brought her friends over for dinner one night and introduced them to mom and her. "Ok give me a moment."

She cupped the speaker end of the phone and hollered upstairs. "BUFFY! YOUR PHONE!"

There was a pause then there were clattering sounds of objects falling. Dawn rolled her eyes, Buffy must had knocked something over.

"Damn it!" Buffy's voice sounded pissed off upstairs. "Give me a minute!"

"Buffy said give her a minute." Dawn relayed to Xander as she speak into the phone again. "So Xander how are you? When are we having another movie marathon? The last one was fun!"

Mom had left on another trip a few weeks back and Buffy had some secret date on, so she had asked Xander to look after her younger sister. Of course, the term Buffy had used was 'please help me babysit this brat', Dawn frowned remembering the conversation. Buffy's such a jerk sometimes, she's already thirteen, with womanly parts, but Buffy kept referring to Dawn as her whiny little sister. Luckily, Xander was not like that at all to her. Xander treated her like a _real_ person, which was why Dawn like him so much.

"Glad you enjoyed it." Xander said with a laugh. "I've a great time too. We'll have to see when I'll have the chance to come over to your place again."

Dawn smiled. "Ok, it's a deal."

The stairs creaked as Buffy came down the stairs. Dawn passed her the phone wordlessly as she went back into the living room to watch her TV.

"Oh Xander, what's up" Dawn heard Buffy said as she spoke into the phone. "What? You did it? Ok, give me half an hour and I'll be there."

Dawn pretended to be looking at the cartoon as Buffy put down the phone and walked over.

"Dawn, I need to meet Xander and Willow. Will you be all right by yourself until Mom comes home?" Buffy asked looking at Dawn.

"Yea, yea, I'll be fine." Dawn said shooing Buffy away.

"Ok, don't open the doors to strangers. And if there's anything wrong, call Mrs. Hilton next door…" Buffy began with the typical speech Mom always told them before she left the house.

"Oh for God's sake Buffy, I'm a teenager, not stupid!" Dawn said crossly. "Just go already."

"Oh ok." Buffy said lamely before turning to go out of the house.

Dawn watched out of the windows in the living room as Buffy walked down the path from the house to the main road. She frowned. Buffy always had secret meetings with Xander and Willow and somehow, she doubt that it's all about school work, Buffy's never that hardworking. When she asked Xander about the meetings, he would always find someway to distract her.

After several attempts of being put off, Dawn had made a promise that one day, she'll find out what Buffy and the others are doing that's so big a secret.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Willow was breathless by the time she reached the library. When she opened the door, she found that Giles, Xander and Buffy were already gathered around the table. Several strips of carefully cut papers with symbols of some sort drawn on them were on it.

"Sorry." Willow apologized before turning to look more carefully at the strips of paper. Four strips of paper were grouped separately from another eight strips of paper with different symbols scribbled on them. "Are those the seals you were talking about Xander?"

Xander nodded before pointing at the first four strips. "These four strips of paper contain the 'dimension walk' seal that will allow you to enter the storage dimension. I've modified it some what so that it will pull your innate magical reserves to sustain it. Everyone has some magical reserves in their bodies even if they couldn't use it, the modified seal will make sure that the amount it pulled from you does not harm you. It will expel you out of the storage dimension before your magical reserves drops to a dangerous level, or with a 'Power Word'."

"That's very good planning." Giles said with an approving nod. "Our individual energy reserves are actually what allowed us to continue living in this world. In a sense, what is known as magical reserves, or the charka you mentioned, are actually the living energy produced by our bodies to stay alive. If you used up all of these energies, you might suffer death or worse."

"Yes and that's why, before you guys use the seals, I'll like to check the amount of magical reserves in your bodies. I've already checked Giles', so I know he has enough to dimension walk, now I'll need to check both of you." Xander said turning to Buffy and Willow. "There's no point for you to use the seal if you've only enough to last a few seconds in the storage dimension before being expelled."

"Actually maybe Buffy could be skipped." Giles began, but broke off uncertainly as if he was thinking about something. "Never mind, perhaps it would be best for you to go over both of them. I am unsure about this new form of magic you are using Xander."

"Oh, ok…" Buffy said dubiously. "So what must I do?"

"Nothing." Xander said moving towards her and taking her hands. "Just relax, I'll search your magical reserves level with my charka senses…."

Willow watched anxiously with Giles as Xander suddenly broke off with a gasp. He was staring at Buffy with a look of shock on his face.

"What happened?" Buffy asked worriedly. "Do I have too little of those magical stuff?"

Xander seemed at lost for words as he stared at Buffy. He blinked a few times before speaking.

"Buffy, with the amount of power within you, you can maybe last a week in the storage dimension without coming out!" He said shaking his head. "I think it is best if you start learning Sealing and the Ninja arts with me. I am only a beginner, but the Kyubi can guide both of us. Giles could also guide you in magic. I was going to ask for his help in studying some of the minor magic, he can teach both of us this way."

"I can do that?" Buffy said sounding amazed. "Wow, you never told me about any magic using Slayer before Giles."

"Well, the council had always known that the Slayer essence itself provided a lot of magical reserves to a Slayer. However, no Slayer has the ability to manipulate magic of any form. Somehow the very Slayer essence that grants you so much magical energies also closed off your ability to use it." Giles explained. "That's why I nearly asked Xander to skip checking you just now. But I wanted to be sure."

"Well, Buffy will be the first magic using, seal wielding, Ninja Slayer in history then." Xander said with a grin as he spoke directly to Buffy. "Your charka pathways are blocked, I can remove the blockage and allow you the ability to use your inner most powers. After all that's the same as what the Kyubi did for me."

"You can do that?" Giles stared at Xander in amazement. "Perhaps I should have questioned you more about the new powers that you've gotten. I've only known a few in history who knew how to unlock the magical reserves of a magic insensitive person. There's only three still living in the world today, all masters of their arts, and they have a policy of not unlocking the reserves of anyone who are not their disciples."

"Why not?" Buffy asked with a frown. "Imagine, if I can use magic and Xander's stuff, it'll really help in the fight."

"For you Buffy, it'll be true you'll have an edge in fighting against vampires and demons. But there've been records of a master unlocking the magical reserves of someone with much potential and the person used it to walk down a dark path of manipulation and destruction." Giles explained to Xander and Buffy. "The major magical communities around the world in fact made it a point to keep the population of people with magic as low as possible. In fact, most people with magical talent are self taught, and those that quickly rise to power are carefully watched by the communities."

"That sounds reasonable, it could really be a problem if you unlock someone's powers and he or she used it to do harmful things." Xander said relenting. "But I know Buffy's not like that, and if Willow has the potential, I'll do the same for her. Don't worry Giles, I don't plan on unlocking the magical gifts of just anyone."

"Well as long as you know the risks." Giles said with a nod, satisfied that he had brought his point across to Xander. "But I agree, if Buffy and maybe Willow has the potential and you know how to unlock their gifts, you should do so. It'll be prudent for everyone."

"Yes!" Buffy said with a grin. "The first magical Slayer in history."

Willow saw Xander hid a smile at Buffy's enthusiasms before he turned to her.

"Ready Wills?" Xander asked as he took Willow's hands.

"I'm ready." Willow said nervously.

She saw Xander took a deep breath and then suddenly, she felt prickles in her mind and…

"ARGH!!" Xander cried as he flung himself from Willow. He collapsed onto the floor giving a cry of pain as he clutched his head, his eyes clenched closed.

"XANDER!" Buffy and Willow cried out spontaneously as they rushed to their fallen friend.

"What happened?" Giles asked helping Xander up. He steadied Xander as he struggled weakly to stand straight.

"Willow's charka pathways are already open, she can use magic right now if she has proper instructions. Her powers…" Xander trailed off, a dazed look on his face. "Buffy can last a week in the storage dimension, you Giles can last two to three days, I can last almost most an hour now, but Willow, Willow can last three weeks in there if she wanted to and still have powerful to spare… She blinded me with the power within her!"

Willow's mouth dropped opened as she listened to Xander's words while Giles and Buffy stared at her in shock.

"Oh dear…" Giles said rubbing his forehead.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Her sense of self felt distorted before Buffy materialized into the storage dimension Xander had talked about. It looked like a large grey room containing various costumes, equipments and people frozen in stasis. Her Slayer senses were also picking up some sort of weird sensation around her, like something oily was rubbing against her skin. Buffy shivered, Xander had warned that she might be able to pick up the chaotic energies here.

Buffy shake her head, she could bear with the feeling for a while, after all, thoughts of the costumes she could chose for herself made it a very exciting trip. She was the first to crossover into this dimension, the rest were supposed to follow soon after. After everyone had got over the excitement of the magical potential that both she and Willow had possessed, Giles and Xander agreed to train both of them. Xander had then given them the 'dimension walk' seals for them to enter the dimension itself.

As she looked around the storage dimension, Buffy felt with a hint of regret that so much had changed for Xander and all of them. Too many things were happening at once, that she could only feel a sense of surreal, like everything was one big dream and she would wake up anytime soon.

Giles had been walking around with a stressed out look on his face while Willow looked like she was in a daze. Xander on the other hand had looked very tired and burdened. Her thoughts were broken as a glow of light appeared beside her. Giles faded into view first. As he became solid, he started looking around him carefully, rubbing his head as if he was suffering from a headache. Then Willow, and Xander followed soon after.

"You were right about the chaos energies." Giles said with a grimace. "I can feel it all around me, a very unpleasant sensation."

"Maybe I can work on a seal that dulls our sensitivity to the chaos energies when I have time." Xander said, turning to look at Buffy and Willow in concern. "What about the two of you? Any of you feeling uncomfortable?"

"Well, it's not that bad for me. I can mostly ignore it." Buffy said with a shrug, her eyes moving from piles of costumes to another.

"I feel something faint, almost like something is whispering at the back of my mind." Willow said nervously. "But I'm fine."

"Well ok then." Xander said, satisfied that they were going to be alright. He waved at the costumes floating in mid air. "As you can see, this is the storage dimension. Now, I've given each of you two 'Null Personality' seals to use on the costumes you chose to bring out with you. These newer and modified versions of the seals will prevent the chaos energy in the storage dimension from sticking to the costumes when you take them with you. Try to choose costumes that will give you an edge in battle. Since currently Buffy could not access her magical energies, and Willow does not know how to actively use her powers, the two of you should chose items that you can use straight away."

"Oh I will. This is great! It feels like the coolest shopping trip ever!" Buffy said feeling a sense of excitement bubbling within her as she looked at the various weapons and outfits around her. The pure power contained in this room is unbelievable.

Something shiny caught her eye, quickly Buffy's shopping instinct took over as she fluttered to the spot where a clutter of swords was stacked on top of each other. Xander, Willow and Giles had already begun moving in separate directions to browse the costumes around them.

"Cool shiny sword!" Buffy said with an appreciative sigh as she greedily eyed one of the shiny but plainly adorned long sword. Though the hilt was not clustered with jewels as some of the other swords were, Buffy recognized quality workmanship when she saw one.

In an instant decision, she took one of the seal that Xander had given her and applied it onto the long sword. She watched in amazement as the seal crumbled away to fade into the weapon. When the sparkling seal had disappeared, she picked up the sword giving it a few test waves.

"Perfect weight, perfect balance!" Buffy said happily. "This is my dream sword! I am naming you… Angelia!"

Her concentration broke as she heard Willow made a happy exclamation in a corner. Giving a look towards her friend, she walked towards to where Willow was looking at a box of rings with a sticker that said 'Captain Planet and the Planeteers'. Xander also turned from the spot where he had led Giles to a chest of some sort, and was making his way towards them.

"Look the planeteers rings!" Willow said a happy grin. "Xander remember how we used to watch the show at Jesse's place?"

"Yeah I remember it." Xander said with a fond grin. "Jesse always wanted to be Wheeler, the one with the Fire ring, he said I should be Ma-Ti…"

"The one with the ring of Heart." Willow said, eyes misting over as she laid a seal on a golden ring with a green stone. "I always preferred Linda, the one with the ring of Wind."

Buffy watched as Willow put on the ring and gave a soft command.

"Wind!" Willow said pointing the ring on her finger towards the ceiling of the room.

A gust of wind, blew up, scattering the frozen figures of the various ghosts that were above them. They floated around before stilling again.

"Oops." Willow said with an apologetic grin. "At least we know that the rings work now."

"We sure do." Xander said with a lopsided grin. He hummed softly as he looked at the rings in the box, picking up one with the symbol of heart for himself. "Each of the rings represents a different elemental power. If I am correct about the symbols on the rings, there are two Heart rings, three Water rings, three Fire rings and one Wind ring in the box. Too bad there's no Earth ring or we might be able to summon Captain Planet."

"Yeah it's too bad, I remember watching him in the cartoons." Buffy said as she took a Fire ring with her remaining seal, putting the ring on her finger. "He's this powerful guy that was created from the power of the five elements right?"

"Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Heart." Xander recited with a reminiscing look. "Those were the days… Before we knew about the demons…"

"Before our childhood delusions were shattered you mean." Buffy said dryly. She held up her sword and ring finger. "Alright I am done, my two seals are used up."

"So am I." Giles said walking towards them, two sparkling green material in his right hand. "If I am right, I seemed to have gotten materias that cast lightning and magical barriers."

"So only me and Willow are left." Xander said looking around for anything he could bring out with him for this trip. "What are you getting for your last item Willow?"

"I think I'll take the other Fire ring." Willow said after much deliberation. "Fire's always useful with vampires around right?"

"That's true." Buffy agreed. She watched as Xander poked around the X-men costumes before dragging out a pair of gloves using his handkerchief as a buffer between the costume and his bare skin.

"This pair of gloves looks different from the others. See the holes at each of the knuckle joints?" Xander said pointing at the silver stud openings. He used his seal on it, before putting it on. "If I am right, this is wolverine's gloves."

Xander frowned, flexing his gloved hands. Buffy felt her eyes widen as six sharp claw-like steel came out of the opening.

"I am right, though it's a bit painful when the claws came out of my skin." Xander said in satisfaction. He flexed his hands and the claws retreated back. He grinned, turning to look at them. "Alright, so everyone has used up the two seals I've given you. We should free Rommie from stasis and return back to the library."

They walked towards where the frozen android was standing. Buffy looked at 'Rommie' who looked just like a young dark haired woman.

"Hard to believe she's an android." Buffy said. She had never watched the TV show, though Willow and Xander had talked about it.

"Well, it's hard to believe that she and a few other mannequins had turned real, all because of the Halloween magic." Xander commented as he placed a special seal he took from his pocket on her.

As the piece of paper disappeared in a rush of bluish light that surrounded the android, Xander explained. "That seal should prevent the chaos energy from sticking onto her. You guys return to the library first, I'll be right along."

Buffy nodded, saying the 'Power Word' Xander had told them would break the 'dimension walk' seals on their hands.

"Kai!" Buffy called. The seal on her hand break into motes of glowing light as she faded out of the dimension.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Xander looked around the storage dimension as everyone left. He stared at Darth Vader who was standing a few distance opposite him and frowned, he was sure he had seen it moved. After a few minutes of staring and there was no further movements, Xander gave a shrug. He must have imagined it, he had been working late nights and it was possible that what he had seen was a trick of his eyes.

He took hold of Rommie's hands and said the words that would take them out of the storage dimension.

"Kai!" He said.

Xander faded from view with Rommie the android. He was not around when the chaos energy in the room around Darth Vader stirred before settling down again.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_Halloween night_

Anakin felt the Force stirring around him. In his years of living as a Force ghost, he had seen much, felt much. A greater understanding of the Force itself, as he watched his son and daughter getting married. He had been there when his grandchildren were born into the world, and as they grew up, he was by their sides, giving silent aid to them in their struggles.

The Force rippled again, echoing through his force essence. Somehow Anakin got the feeling that he was needed to go on a journey somewhere.

_Balance._ The words came into his thoughts as the Force began stirring into a whirlpool of chaos. _Be the Balance that guides the eyes._

Darkness swallowed him, and then suddenly he was else where, in an armor of some sort, in a shop filled with weird people and outfits. He took a step forward, astonished at the sensation of physical feeling.

How was this possible? He was long dead!

There was a young man in front of him who suddenly burst into red tendrils of flame like power. Anakin frowned. The energy coming out from the young man did not feel like the Force, in fact it did not feel like anything he had ever sensed before.

Anakin stepped forward to question the young man when suddenly his view of the world became distorted as reality twisted in front of him. He had the feeling of being trapped somewhere wrapped by some great power before he knew nothing more.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_Current time_

_Chosen…_The Force stirred, whispering to him, trying to rouse Anakin out of a deep sleep…

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**References:**

_Kyubi: a nine tailed fox demon._

_Naruto: a ninja from the anime and manga Naruto._

_Chakra: physical and spiritual energy that one generates. In my story, it's same as the energy used by willow and the others to cast spells._

_Seals: complex formulaic magic that is able to seal away objects or allow other feats._

_Jutsu: in my story, is the ninja equivalent of a magic spell._

Halloween Costumes and Equipments Crossovers

_X-Men gloves: From X-Men comics_

_Materia: From Final Fantasy VII game_

_Ray gun: No particular fandom, just a bit of sci-fi stuff I added for my interest_

_Power Rings: From Captain Planet and the Planteers_

_Sword: From ?_

Current Halloween Equipments of Group

_Ray gun: condensed light energy_

Current Halloween Equipments of Buffy

_Sword: cut things up_

_Fire Ring: summon the powers of fire_

Current Halloween Equipments of Willow

_X-Men gloves: triggering Jubilee's X-gene._

_Wind Ring: summon the powers of wind_

_Fire Ring: summon the powers of fire_

Current Halloween Equipments of Xander

_X-Men gloves: triggering Wolverine's genes_

_Materia: 1) Yellow Materia – MORPH – ability to morph user or objects into any object_

_Heart Ring: Empathy, Telepathy_

Current Halloween Equipments of Giles

_Materia: 1) Green Materia – ICE – ability to cast the ICE spell_

_ 2) Green Materia – Lightning – ability to cast the Lightning spell_

_ 3) Green Materia – Barrier – ability to cast the Barrier spell_

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**Author's Notes:** I actually wanted to fit Rommie into the group in this chapter. But as I started writing and hit the 6000+ words mark, I realized I had to put her in the next chapter. Sorry to you guys who expected to see her :( I had to tie up some loose ends before I fitted her in.

If any of you are wondering if Xander's getting surpassed by Willow and Buffy, I can only say that Xander's specialization is Seals, Willow I'll follow the Buffy canon, and Buffy will specialize in the third type of magic in my story.

Just watched one episode of Pushing Daisy just now, its hilarious, I might cross it someday ;) who knows?


	5. Chapter 5

**5. Chapter Five: Rommie and the Comic book heroes 1/2**

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**Summary: **One Halloween Night changed everything for Xander. Agreeing to a contract with the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon for power, he unknowingly unleashed great evils to the world... changing everything for the Scobby Gang. Buffy/Naruto/Multiple Crossovers

**Crossover: **Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

**Book Title: **Master of the Forbidden Seals

**Author: **Wraithrune

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**Chapter Five: Rommie and the Comic book heroes Part 1/2 **

_"The First Grandmaster, Alexander Lavelle Harris, was a man with unsurpassed abilities in the Sealing Arts. Out of the 21 Forbidden Seals that the Watcher's Council knew, 18 were created by Alexander, 2 were created by the great Grand mistress Dawn Summers, and 1 was created by Grand mistress Cordelia Chase, wife of Alexander. _

_It's ironic that out of all the forbidden seals, the one that was the most well known was Cordelia Chase's 'Soul Blast' Seal. Or as the soap operas and romance literature works like to call it, 'The Final Strike'. It's a seal that destroy one's own soul to release tremendous destructive energies, crafted by Cordelia Chase in a desperate attempt to save the ones she loves. Luckily for the world, Grandmaster Alexander arrived to save the day. One can only shudder at the outcome if the Grandmaster had found his fiancée dead…"_

_~ History of the Forbidden Seals _

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_2000 hr, Sunnydale High School Library _

Rommie was the humanoid avatar of the Andromeda Ascendant, a starship. She was built and given material form as an android by the engineer, Seamus Harper, who became one of her closest friend. Throughout the years of living with her commander, Dylan Hunt and his crew, she had went through numerous experiences, some of which was just out of this world. But currently, she found herself in a predicament that was just plain unbelievable.

When Rommie had come to consciousness, she had found herself in some sort of library with genuine books made of paper stacked in all the shelves. Paper books were long obsolete in the galaxy thousands of years ago, which impressed upon her the weirdness of the situation. Three teenagers and a man in his early thirties had surrounded her and were looking at her with various degrees of amazement. The boy who had introduced himself as Xander then launched into an explanation of why she was here.

Magic is real, dimensional portals called hellmouths opening all over the universe, and apparently a higher power of some sort had told them that she was their only hope of space travels. It was of course all unbelievable. She was an android, an avatar of a starship, a warship to be exact. If there was a God for her, it would be science and technology. The last memories she had was being onboard Andromeda helping out with some much needed repair work. Then something had scrambled her optic senses and when she came to, she was… in this place… listening to this outlandish explanation that did not make sense.

Her doubt and disbelief must have showed on her face because Xander had then offered to give some demonstration of this magic that they were talking about. The man Giles, had reached into his pockets to take out three green marbles and explained that they were magical aids before proceeding to summon several ice bolts before throwing them towards her. Rommie had flinched back but found to her amazement that the ice bolts had shattered against an invisible shield of some sort while they were a few feet in front of her. Then somehow, this Giles had created lightning that surrounded his whole hands before dispelling them.

All these while amazing, could still be done with some sort of advanced technologies. Rommie had came to the conclusion that perhaps she was in a third world planet of some sort where the inhabitants had found some advanced tech and thought that these equipments actually allowed them to do magic. That conclusion had been shattered when Xander had proceed to draw several symbols on plain pieces of paper, and proceed to manipulate some sort of mystic force into casting fire, teleportation and creating strips of paper that explode when blood was applied on them.

"Do you believe us now?" Xander asked panting. The library had the smell of burnt wood and ash. Giles was looking in horror at the blasted chairs pieces scattered on the library floor after the exploding tags had been applied to them.

"Xander! Do you have to use the new library chairs for your demonstration?" Giles asked aghast. "How am I going to explain this to Synder?"

"Oh… er… I didn't think of that. I'll pay for the new ones." Xander said scratching his head uncomfortably.

"Let's say if I believe you." Rommie interrupted before Giles could continue reprimanding the boy. She tried to project an appearance of calm even though her internal logic circuits were frying themselves trying to come up with a reasonable explanation. "And this Halloween magic of yours had brought me here, how am I going to return back home?"

"Home?" Xander echoed looking stumped. "But you're supposed to help us…"

"Why? Because some dead friend of yours say so? That I have to help you clean up the mess that you yourself admitted to creating?" Rommie asked trying to sound reasonable. "If I understand you correctly, you're the very reason why I am here in the first place. My family is my Commander and the crew of Andromeda. They are the ones that I own my loyalty to and they'll need me back."

"But you're not even the real…" Xander began but was cut off by Rommie.

"It doesn't matter if I am just a copy of the original me. One thing I do know is that I don't belong here." Rommie said with steel in her voice. "Is there any way of sending me back to my reality?"

"We are not sure, but there might be ways." Giles said slowly. "How about we make a deal? We'll try to find a way to send you back home while you provide us with the technology to space travel?"

Rommie looked at Giles. As she had suspected the man was the shrewd one among the group. But right now she was in an unknown place, probably an alternate reality of some sort if what they said were true, and being told she was just a copy of the original Rommie. It would not be best to offend them since she might need their help in the future. However, she highly doubted the morals of just handing advanced technologies to them. With no idea of their characters, there's no way of telling what they might do if they had these advanced technologies in their hands.

"I'll like some time to think about it." Rommie said looking calmly at Giles. "Is that alright with you?"

"It'll be fine." Xander said in obvious relief that she had not outright rejected their offer.

There was a moment of awkward silence as everyone looked at each other wondering what to say next.

"Well, Rommie could stay at the guest room at my place." Giles spoke up, breaking the silence.

That seemed to spur everyone into motion.

"That's great, I hadn't really thought of that." Xander said brightly before turning to look at Rommie. "Erm… actually would you like to go with us to patrol? We're going to hunt vampires, it'll further prove to you our words. And maybe let you see what we're dealing with."

If she was a human, she might have been overwhelmed at how different this reality was, that creatures from old Earth myth were running about here. But she was only an android programmed with human emotions which she could overwrite. Rommie shut down the surge of depression that welled up within her. She had been in alternate realities before during her time with her crew. She had even traveled back to the past as well, and every time, every member of the crew had escaped safe and sound. She promised herself that she would find her way back home, one way or another.

"That's alright with me. But what should I do?" Rommie asked.

The two girls looked at each other. Then the blond haired one who had introduced herself as Buffy spoke up.

"Well, you can watch us do the slaying." Buffy said grinning, swinging the sword in her hands.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_2100 hr, Sunnydale cemetery _

Jonathan groaned, why had he even bothered to try out for the football team? If he didn't go to submit the application this afternoon, he wouldn't be in this situation right now. He looked around him where seven other boys were huddled on the grass or against the tombstone trying to get some rest.

The eight of them were the so called 'leftovers' among the new candidates who had submitted their applications. The football coach had allowed only those he deemed 'able-bodied' into the team, the rest had left dejectedly out of the locker room when the football team had approached them and told them there was a way for them to join the team but on one condition. That condition happened to be staying in a graveyard the whole night till next morning to test their courage. The football team had said that they would come to check on them in the morning and that they would _know _if anyone cheated because they would be watching nearby. Whoever had lasted the night would be allowed into the team.

As the night grew longer, the original fourteen boys had dwindled to a mere eight. Talk had slowed and everyone that's left was trying uneasily to get some rest, not that anyone could actually rest in a graveyard. Jonathan's eyes darted around his surroundings nervously. His parents had warned him repeatedly not to be out after dark, Sunnydale tends to be more dangerous when night falls, with gangs on PCP wondering around. Why just last week, his next door neighbor was found dead outside his house, attacked by some gang members.

A hand clasped his shoulder. Jonathon shuddered and gave a whimper.

"Hey you all right?" A voice asked.

Jonathan turned around and found to his relief that it was only another of the boys. Jonathan frowned as he tried to recall the name, Anthony? No it's… Andrew. Yeah that's right Andrew.

"I'm fine, I am just thinking." Jonathan responded, trying to not sound like a scary cat.

"So have I." Andrew looked around him before speaking softly. "You know, I've been wondering if maybe the seniors are making fun of us."

"Making fun of us?" Jonathan asked. "But they promised they'll let us join the team if we stayed the night."

"Well they did say that." Andrew agreed. "But think about it. The one making the decision about whether we could join the team is the coach, and you know the coach never did say anything about letting us join through alternate means."

Jonathan's heart sank. "We might be tricked."

"Yeah. You look like someone intelligent enough to realize that, so I am letting you know what I think before I left." Andrew said getting up carefully so as not to draw attention from the boys that were sleeping.

"You're leaving?" Jonathan asked, feeling a bit touched that this Andrew had at least told him of his suspicions. "Shouldn't we at least try to stay the night? Maybe the seniors would keep their promise."

"Do or do not, there is no try." Andrew quipped sagely.

Jonathan stared blankly at him.

"You know? From Yoda? Erm… Star Wars?" Andrew asked unnerved by Jonathan's blank look.

"Oh! Yoda, the Jedi grandmaster from Star Wars, er of course haha… I know that." Jonathan laughed weakly. He looked around him and came to a decision. "Alright, I am leaving with you."

"Great…" Andrew began but was cut off by a voice.

"Look at all the fresh meat laid out for us today." A voice sneered.

Jonathan and Andrew turned around and saw five burly biker guys walking from behind some grave stones, grinning at them. Jonathan and Andrew froze while the other boys began jerking awake at the loud voice.

"Erm… I know I am kind of a nerd and all, but I am actually not into anything kinky." Andrew said backing away.

One of the men who looked liked the leader frowned.

"Kinky? Why would I want to do anything kinky with you?" The biker leader said aghast before grinning at them. The rest of the boys were awake by now and all watched in horror as the face of the five biker guys morphed into something that seemed to come out of their worse nightmare. "I was talking about finding my dinner, as in _you _are my dinner."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_2110 hr, Sunnydale cemetery _

_"That didn't go too well fox." _Xander said wearily as he, Buffy and Willow led Rommie across the Crystal View Cemetery . Giles had gone off saying he's going to get some stuff and prepare the guest room. _"I guess that's what Jesse meant by her being able to make her own choices." _

_"Well, she did say she'll think about it." _Kyubi said in an encouraging tone. _"However, you do need to change your previous attitude that she should help us just because Jesse said so and because she's only a copy, she should listen to you. Even if she's only a copy of the original, she is still a sentient being" _

_"I know… I probably sounded a bit self centered back there. I guess I will have to find some other way to convince her to help us." _Xander said grimly. _"But is it even possible to send her back to her original reality?" _

_"That I have no idea." _Kyubi said dubiously. _"I've never encountered this kind of situation before." _

Xander sighed and slouched at the back of the group silently contemplating the problem. Buffy was talking to Rommie enthusiastically about the various types of demons that she had encountered, with Willow giving more detailed descriptions of the demons when Rommie had asked about them. It was a good thing that it was already night, because Rommie cut an interesting figure wearing her high guard uniform, Xander reminded himself to get some new clothes for her.

They had prepared themselves before they had left the library. Buffy had brought along the sword she had taken from the Halloween storage with the Fire ring on her finger. Willow had put on Jubilee's gloves and the two planeteer rings. Xander in the meantime, equipped himself with wolverine's gloves as well as wearing the Heart ring. It was their first time out to test the Halloween costumes and judge how effective they would be used in combat.

"So you're telling me you just kill these vampires?" Rommie asked with a frown. "Surely there are some that are not as evil as you say?"

"Well there are exceptions." Buffy said, obviously thinking about Angel. "But since most vampires tend to be unable to control their urge to suck human blood and leave humans dead, it's my job to take them out."

Whatever conversation they might have was interrupted by shouting and screaming in the distance.

"Speak of the devil." Xander said shaking his head, following closely behind Buffy as she broke into a run. He turned his head to make sure that Willow and Rommie were following behind him before putting a burst of speed to match up with Buffy.

They watched in amazement as several boys that they recognized from their school ran towards and then past them, screaming loudly.

"Was there a party that we were not invited to?" Xander mused.

"A graveyard party?" Buffy asked incredulously. "Thanks but no thanks… Oh my god…"

The two of them paused as they arrived at a row of gravestones where five biker vampires were laying waste to the rest of the boys that were left. Three of the boys were being drained of blood while another two boys were trying to fend of the remaining vampires.

"I am going after the three blood suckers." Buffy shouted as she moved into action. "Take care of those two guys."

Xander gave a brief look as Buffy charged towards the three vampires who were draining the blood of the boys. He saw her calling fire from her Fire ring, distracting one of the vampires from his dinner before quickly decapitating it. He turned around once he was sure she would be alright and charged towards the two vampires who were advancing on the two boys that were left.

"Hey, is that the Slayer I see there?" one of the vampires asked turning to look at Buffy. "Shit! She killed Benny!"

"And I am killing you." Xander hissed as he rushed passed the two boys. At his command, the six adamantium claws protruded from his hands as he made a swipe at the neck of the vampire.

The claw sliced through the vampire's neck like butter. The vampire gave Xander a surprised look before vanishing into dust. Xander was about to turn to face the second vampire when a fist caught him in his chest, sending him smashing into a gravestone. Pain lashed through his head even as the head wound began to heal. With Kyubi sealed within him, he would have healed faster than the average human. Add in Wolverine's healing factor which allowed for rapid cellular regeneration and his wound began to close even as it opened.

He got up and saw the second vampire staring at him in shock, apparently, he didn't expect Xander to heal that fast.

"You freak!" The vampire snarled as he threw himself at Xander.

Xander crouch low, claws out, and was preparing to defend himself when a stream of bright colored lights blasted out from the side, slamming into the vampire who gave an agonizing scream before exploding into dust. Xander turned and saw Willow running towards him, sparks still dancing around her hands.

"Wolverine and Jubilee." One of the boys he had rescued said in an awed voice. "They are real! But it's strange, Wolverine looks burly in the comics and Jubilee is an asian."

Xander rolled his eyes as he turned and spoke firmly to the two teenagers who were about his age. In fact, he recognized one of them as being in the same class as him though he couldn't remember the name.

"Stay here and don't move if you want to live." Xander said in a serious voice before rushing to where Buffy was finishing up her fight. He found to his surprise Rommie helping in the battle as she walked up to the last vampire and pulled him from his meal. She looked at the limp body of the victim who had collapsed onto the grass. A look of disgust crossed her face as she turned to stare at the vampire flailing in her hand.

The vampire tried swing a punch at Rommie's face which Rommie ducked.

"Scum…" Rommie said so softly that Xander might not have heard if he didn't put Wolverine's gloves on. Part of Wolverine's powers was enhanced senses, which meant that his hearing right now was sharper than normal.

Buffy walked up to Rommie and cut the neck of the vampire held captive in the android's hand. She lowered the sword turning to Rommie.

"That's the only way to kill them." Buffy told Rommie as the vampire dusted. "Decapitation, sunlight or stakes through the heart."

Xander blinked as blue lightning ran across the various wound on Buffy's body closing them. He met Buffy's eyes and saw that she already knew.

"That sword must have belonged to one of the Immortals." Xander said as he walked up towards Buffy. "I wonder if it meant that you'll be granted immortality as long as you're holding the sword."

_"What do you think fox?" _Xander asked mentally for a second opinion.

_"I don't think the Halloween magic that was cast was powerful enough to grant anyone immortality, but we'll never know until we actually kill someone while they are holding the sword wouldn't we?" _Kyubi reasoned.

Xander grimaced. _"Thanks but no thanks, I hope we'll never have a situation where we have to test it out." _

"There are Immortals in this world?" Rommie asked as she bent down to check the boy on the grass in front of her.

"They are from the TV series called the Highlanders. Buffy's sword must have belonged to one of the characters." Willow explained as she moved to inspect the rest of the fallen boys together with Xander. "But enough about that, what are the conditions of the three boys whose blood were sucked?"

"The pulse of this one here is very weak, he would probably die if help he doesn't receive treatment soon." Rommie said looking up worriedly.

"Hmm…" Xander said as he laid his hands on one of the victims. The limp body of the boy gave a jerk as Xander laid his gloved hands against his cheek. Color returned to his cheek as his neck wound closed. Within seconds, the boy jerked awake.

"It worked." Xander sounded surprised.

"The healing factor of Wolverine's gloves works upon skin contact with any one." Willow said as she realized what Xander was doing, looking at him in shock. "Xander you're a genius!"

"No need to sound so surprise Willow." Xander said grumpily. "I do think of smart ideas once in a while."

"Oh sorry." Willow said with a wince as Xander moved to lay his hands on the boy in front of her.

"That's cool!" Buffy said excitedly. "Let me try."

Rommie moved aside to let Buffy laid the blade of her sword on the hand of the last boy, sparks of lightning surged through the boy's body before he sat up suddenly with a gasp.

"What is going on?" The teenager asked as he looked around him in fright.

"Yeah! I remember seeing some strange men…" the other boy who had come awake said, trailing off with a frightened gulp.

"It's ok, you were attacked by gangs on PCP, my friends scared them off." Willow tried to calm them as she quickly came up with an explanation.

"Everything's ok now." Xander said getting up from his knees. "We'll see all of you home."

"Xander." Willow said as they began rounding up the three boys. She pointed behind them and Xander turned to find the other two boys he had first rescued standing at the exact spot he had told them to remain at. The two of them were staring at Xander, Buffy and Willow with something akin to hero worship. "I think they saw everything. What are we going to do?"

Xander slapped his hand to his forehead with a groan. "I totally forgot they were there!"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_0030 hr, Giles home _

Rommie sat on the sofa in the living room, going through the events of the night. Xander, Willow and Buffy had seen each of the attacked boys right to their doorsteps. She could tell from the way that they preached the practiced lie to the boys they had rescued, about how gangs on PCP had attacked them, that they had done this many times.

It was incredible how the citizens of this town could be so blind to the danger that lurks in the dark, how the only ones protecting them were children themselves. There had been two victims who had refused to believe the group's lie about the vampires. Those two had seen first hand the powers Xander, Buffy and Willow had exhibited to destroy the vampires. They had seen the vampires turning into dust, and they had demanded explanations.

Xander and the rest had promised to tell them the truth after it became apparent that they were not buying the lie. They had asked the two boys to wait at the school library after school the next day, where they would be told of the truth. Quickly sending the two boys home, Xander, Buffy and Willow then led Rommie back to Giles' place.

Giles it seemed had prepared a surprise for her. He had introduced her to an anarchic visual entertainment system called the TV and the DVD player, as well as Season One of the TV series Andromeda which came in the form of discs called DVD discs.

She was left in the living room to watch her whole life flash passed in the form of media entertainment for the people of this reality. It had shaken her up and made her realized that she really was in an alternate reality with no way of going back home. Her only hope might very well lie with the three children and one adult.

"They are telling the truth." Rommie whispered to herself in dread. "I am really just a TV character."

When Xander, Buffy and Willow had left for home, Giles informed her that he was turning in for the night. Frustrated at the slow speed of the DVD player, she had taken the rest of the DVD disc and tried to access the data in them. She was an android of a starship, as such, she was equipped with sensors that allowed her to interact with any and all electronic and magnetic devices. When she found out that she could not 'read' the disc by itself, she had tried 'reading' the DVD player instead by putting the disc into the device.

She then hacked into the electronic signals that the DVD player produced. Rommie was then able to decode the information on the disc as a whole and 'see' it in her mind instead of relying on slow medium such as the TV. Reading the whole set of DVDs for Season One had taken her only fifteen minutes, and it further made her realized the harsh reality of her situation. Everything contained in the discs as TV episodes were spot on rendition of the lives of the crew of Andromeda since their first year together. There was a lot of stuff which outsiders should have no knowledge of. It also gave her a lot to think about.

Sitting on the sofa, she contemplated about the rest of what she had seen in this new reality. The vampires that she had encountered today looked very much like the Magogs in her own reality. The Magog was an alien race in her universe that preyed on all and any sentient life forms, the ultimate predator. Andromeda and her crew had been pitted against the Magog many times in order to save the galaxy from them. Perhaps this 'Scobby gang' that was made up of the three children and Giles were doing the same thing upon a smaller scale.

Rommie thought of what Xander had told her when she first came to in this world, about how he had inevitably opened dimensional portals called Hellmouths on other planets which had allowed the demons through. Xander had tried to impress upon her why they desperately needed her to help them. He had wanted to secure some means of space travels in order to reach those planets and close their Hellmouths. She had not known the seriousness of their cause then, but after witnessing the vampires whom according to Giles were one of the less powerful demonic species, she had understood the need for the small group to quickly deal with the demons that were set loose on other planets.

"You should help them you know." A voice piped up.

Rommie got up from the sofa and turned around, to see a young boy around Xander's age staring at her in amusement.

"I mean you no harm." The boy said with a smile. "I am Jesse."

"Xander's friend, the higher power." Rommie said as she remembered what Xander had told her when she first came.

"Well, I _am _Xander's friend, but I am not a higher power. That would have to be my bosses." Jesse said pointing to the ceiling. He gave an uncomfortable shrug. "I am not supposed to be here you know, it's against the rules for me to interfere with someone else's free will, but I can't sit back and do nothing while Xander's still being troubled."

"You have rules that you must adhere to?" Rommie asked. "That's not how I imagine life would be like after you die."

"Well since you've never been dead, I'll forgive you for that comment." Jesse said with a friendly grin. "But the sooner you make up your mind to help them, the better it will be for this reality and everyone in it. The demons that were set loose from the opened Hellmouths would become a great danger in the future if they were not stopped quickly."

"I have been thinking about it." Rommie admitted. "But even if I offer to help, I have no idea how I am going to build them a spaceship to go into space. I am an android, I have blueprints for several advanced technologies, mostly hand held weapons, my memory banks are just not large enough to contain all the data stored in Andromeda herself. What I had stored in me is stuff that I will normally use. The only way you can get blueprints of starships would be from a starship itself or from a starship factory."

Jesse blinked.

"Didn't Xander told you about the starships turned real he had in his Halloween storage seal?" Jesse asked looking at her in confusion.

"He did mention something about that while he was explaining everything to me, but I remembered that he said they were around this big." Rommie said making a hand motion with her hands. "There are no way ships that size could help us… unless I interface with the starships themselves and pull the blueprints of starships from them!"

"There! See problem solved. With the blueprints, you'll be able to build a ship with the necessary resources and you figured it out all on your own." Jesse grinned. Then he leaned towards her, light sparkling in his eyes. "There are some technologies in those small ships that might very well be more advanced than those in your reality. If Xander ever found a way to send you home, think about all the knowledge you could bring back with you."

Rommie's eyes widened. "You mean there's a way for me to go home?"

"There's always a way, and in this case, Xander will most probably be your best bet of going home." Jesse said then he turned serious. "Keep our meeting a secret from everyone would you? If I am busted and my bosses found that I was down here talking to you… I might lose everything."

Rommie watched in amazement as Jesse disappeared in a spiral of lights.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_0500 hr, next day, Area 51 _

President Hawkins of the U.S.A stared at the creature that was confine in one of the underground bomb shelter with its moments being monitored by the various cameras affixed inside the shelter. The _dinosaur_, for that's what it was, pranced in the confines of the shelter uneasily.

"Where did you found it?" President Hawkins asked the Captain of the Special oversight group stationed in California that was supposed to keep an eye out for anything weird and out of the ordinary. President Hawkins sighed looking at the dinosaur. Well _this _certainly fell under the label of extraordinary.

"My team found it wandering across the desert near L.A during a training session. It took a load of stun darts used for large creature captures before we managed to sedate it." The Captain said grimly. "We had it transported here and called you immediately. Luckily, it seemed that the media had not caught wind of this yet."

"That's good news. Are there more of these dinosaurs wondering around?" President Hawkins asked with a sigh.

"We are combing the whole desert right now, but so far, we've found nothing." The Captain replied. "I think we should call in some specialists to investigate how a dinosaur managed to appear in California . Might I suggest the newly created team that is supposed to combat the sub-terrestrial? Seeing how close the incident happened to _that _place, it might be prudent…"

"No." President Hawkins said after a pause. "A dinosaur belonged to this world, albeit from the past and should not be labeled as one of the sub-terrestrial, this whole thing stinks of something… _out of this world _… I have in mind a group to begin the investigations, but their security clearance would be exceeding yours. I expect you to ask no questions about what they do and aid them every way that you can."

"Yes Sir!" The Captain said with a salute.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_0900 hr, Giles' home _

Giles woke up groggily and made his way to the kitchen to prepare some coffee as was his morning ritual. He was surprised to find someone sitting on the sofa of the living room as he walked past before belatedly remembering that he had invited Rommie to stay over. Giles sighed, not that he needed to worry about Jenny getting the wrong impression of him asking a woman to stay at his place. Jenny had not been talking to him since the incident with the Eyghon demon which was close to a week ago.

"Giles." Rommie said getting up as she heard him walked past. "I've decided I'll help all of you and in return you will help find a way to get me back home."

Giles blinked and then shake his head to clear the morning fog.

"That's great! Thank you Rommie." Giles said smiling at her. "I'll make sure we do everything we can to send you back home."

"I've been thinking last night and it occurred to me that this path would be the best to take." Rommie admitted and then look around. "So is there anything you need my help with?"

"Oh, er no, it's ok, you have a rest on the sofa first. I've a phone call to make." Giles said making his way to his study.

He closed the door behind him as he entered the room and reached for the telephone. After pressing a series of long numbers that he had remembered by heart, he heard a beep and quickly pressed the next sequence of passwords that would enter him into the Watcher's Council's secure line.

Someone picked up the phone at the other end.

"Yes?" Travers' voice barked. Travers was the director of the Watcher's Council and one of the few taking turns manning the secure phone line in the council.

"The android Rommie has agreed to help us attain space travel capabilities." Giles spoke into the phone. "I am not sure how long that would take but once that's done, we might have hopes of reaching to the planets where the Hellmouths were opened and close them."

"That's good news." Travers' voice came down the line. "Keep me informed of the rest of the things happening. And oh yes, the 'Sheng Yen' prophecies you asked for is being sent to you right now."

"Thank you, I'll keep a look out for it." Giles said as the line went dead.

Placing the phone back to the holder, he walked out of the study to find Rommie.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Jesse stood outside the public phone booth shaking his head.

"Xander… The things I do to keep you and Willow safe." Jesse said shaking his head. "If the Powers that Be found out what I am doing behind their backs, I might lose my powers and probably get reincarnated as a cockroach."

At the mental imagery, Jesse shivered. He picked up the phone again and summoned another burst of powers. "Ah well, at least a cockroach is hard to kill, and now onto the next target."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

"… and then, aside from the Eyghon demon incident close to one week ago, everything has been peaceful on the Hellmouth." Giles voice said over the phone. "Right now I am mostly getting the Slayer and her group to do some research, for instance, I will get them to read up on the 'Sheng Yen' prophecies that you're sending over."

Travers yawned, it was another one of Giles weekly report that he had no choice but to listen to. Field watchers assigned to Slayers were closely watched because every once in a while, they would take the Slayer's side and turn against the council. So far Rupert Giles was still a model watcher and had kept his Slayer alive for quite a duration.

Travers could not help swallowing a bitter disappointment that this California blond Slayer had not yet perished. She was not Council trained and thus was full of liberal ideas that might very well contradict with the principles of the Council.

Then he smiled, Giles had no idea that right now… there was more than one Slayer in the world.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Everyone had gathered at the library after school to hear Rommie's news. Xander couldn't help but feel a weight lifted from his back as he listened to Rommie's affirmation of giving them her help.

"So how do we begin?" Xander asked.

"I remembered that you were talking about those spaceships that turned real when you first explained to me." Rommie said looking at Xander. "Can you bring me to them?"

Xander brightened. "Alright. But since you're an android and is unable to produce chakra, you'll have to hitch a ride with me. Just make sure to keep physical contact with me when we exit the Halloween storage dimension or you'll be trapped in there until I could go back and take you out again."

"Willow and Buffy will stay behind to help me clear some paperwork." Giles announced. Buffy gave a groan at the side.

"Ok, hold my hand Rommie." Xander said taking out a seal in his hand. Rommie reached out to touch his free hand.

There was a blaze of blue light as Xander and Rommie faded from view.

"You know, we're going to need donuts if we're going to do some serious research." Buffy said brightly, speaking up in the silence. "I volunteer myself for donut mission!"

"Buffy!" Giles called out in exasperation as Buffy speed out of the library, leaving the library doors swinging in her wake. He turned to look at Willow who spread out her hands innocently.

"I am fine with research!" Willow said with an impish grin.

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They entered the storage dimension which was an eye opener to Rommie, with everything frozen in stasis. Her eyes immediately went to the 7 ships floating above them and she gave a gasp at what she saw.

"That's Andromeda!" Rommie cried out pointing at one of the spaceships above them.

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Giles and Willow paused in their paperwork as a blazing blue light announced the return of Rommie and Xander. In their hands were the seven spaceships.

"That was fast." Willow commented. "Buffy just left for donuts."

"Well, we just grabbed the spaceships and left." Xander said, putting three basketball sized ships onto the table. "Do you really think that they will help us Rommie?"

Rommie put the other four ships on the table and moved to the ship that looked like a miniature version of Andromeda. She laid her hands on it and then froze for a minute. After a long moment, she blinked and looked at Xander.

"I am not sure… There's something wrong, this ship _is _Andromeda." Rommie said confusedly. "However, when I tried interfacing with the ship, but I can't sense the presence of Andromeda's AI anywhere. The databanks are filled with starship and technological information, but this ship felt like it just came out of the starship factories, a brand new ship with no AI."

"Is that a bad thing?" Giles asked. "The information to build a starship is still contained in the databanks right?"

Rommie paused, looking lost.

"Yes the information is still there. It's just I was hoping I would not be the only one from my universe." Rommie said dejectedly. She gave herself a shake and look at Giles. "But why did this happen? I thought that the Halloween magic copied everything of its Halloween counterpart?"

"Well, the Halloween magic does copy the characteristics of its counterparts, but there's no way of knowing what time period or when that counterpart it copied is from." Giles explained. "Like you said, this ship felt brand new. It could be that the magic copied the Andromeda that was just being built, years before your creation."

Rommie sighed as she turned to look at the starship of Andromeda wistfully. "I can always put a copy of myself into Andromeda, which might help with the data sorting."

Xander watched as Rommie turned to the rest of the starships and laid her hands on each of them, doing some form of high tech connection with the starships.

"Actually, what are you doing?" Xander asked as Rommie lifted her hands from one of the ships and moved on to the next.

"I am interfacing with the AI and the databanks of each of the starships." Rommie explained. "It's one of the abilities I was built with, the ability to interface and communicate with any electronic or magnetic devices."

"Oh, and so that's how you'll pull data from them to build a starship?" Willow asked.

Rommie nodded. "Yes that's how, once we've identified all the technologies and see what might best help us."

Rommie was about to explain further when she was interrupted.

"Wow! Starships models!" A voice cried out excitedly behind them.

Xander pinched his forehead as he looked at the two boys that had entered the library without their notice.

"I presume those two are the students that needed to be told of what is going on in Sunnydale?" Giles asked Xander and Willow. After they had left Rommie at his place last night, they had given him a run down of the night's happenings and told him that two of the boys might come demanding explanations.

Willow nodded, looking at the two boys nervously.

"Alright then." Giles said turning to the two boys. "How about you introduce yourself first."

"Oh er… I am Jonathan…" One of the boys began when the library doors swung opened with a bang.

"Donuts delivery services have arrived!" Buffy called out cheerily as she strode into the library with a large box of donuts.

She paused at the deafening silence that greeted her.

"What? You've never seen a donut girl before?" Buffy asked indigantly as she gave an angry huff.

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**Disclaimer: **I do not own any characters, objects or plots from

the vampire slayer TV series  
TV series  
Wars  
SG-1 TV series  
the friendly ghost  
Planet and the Planeteers

Fantasy VII  
9.X-Men  
TV series  
Manga and Anime series

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**Author's Notes: **Hi guys, here's the latest chapter, a lot of you guys have given me great input, I'd be using some of them, but only as the story progress. Reason is I kind of have a rough idea of where the story is going right now so I want to write out the main plot before adding other stuff. But many thanks for all your reviews and comments.

A bit busy and stressed with my life currently, so if you came across anything depressive in my blog, sorry about that! Anyway, the next chapter will be out soon. I just need to give it a more thorough check as I only just finished it.

Thank care guys!

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*_Regarding Rommie's ability to interface with electronic devices, she had shown that ability a few times in Andromeda TV series, one example would be in Season one, episode 12 where she entered the databanks of a ship just by lying a hand on the ship's navigational controls. _  
*_The reason why the vampires did not gained immortal healing was because Buffy cut hard and fast, without the blade resting on them for more than a few seconds. If the sword was stuck in a vampire's or demon's body however… It'll be a totally different story. _


	6. Chapter 6

**6. Chapter Six: Rommie and the Comic book heroes 2/2**

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**Summary: **One Halloween Night changed everything for Xander. Agreeing to a contract with the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon for power, he unknowingly unleashed great evils to the world... changing everything for the Scooby Gang. Buffy/Naruto/Andromeda/Multiple Crossovers

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters, objects or plots from  
Buffy the vampire slayer TV series,Andromeda TV series,Star Wars,Stargate SG-1 TV series,Casper the friendly ghost,Captain Planet and the Planeteers,Ghostbusters,Final Fantasy VII,Final Fantasy VI (Final Fantasy III in North America),X-Men,Primeval TV series,Final Fantasy X-2,Smallville TV series,Star Ocean Video Game series,Gundam Manga and Anime series,Xenosaga Video Game series,Naruto Manga and Anime series

**This is just a work of fanfiction. I claim none of the TV, anime, books, or game series plots or characters that were used in my story **_**(just in case I forget to write a fandom I've used)**_

**Crossover: **Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover  
**Book Title: **Master of the Forbidden Seals  
**Author: **Wraithrune  
**Beta: **Obsidius

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**Chapter Six: Rommie and the Comic book heroes Part 2/2**

_"Seal Mastery, the Ninja Arts and Magic are three different crafts. The first uses minimal power to call upon the essences of Creation to do one's bidding. The second uses an individual's own energy to achieve incredible feats. The last craft taps into all living energies that are abundant in this reality to mold and conjure into a new form._

_What could be done with one craft might only be possible with the other crafts through great difficulty. I draw to your attention the Anubis incident in your history books. By tapping into the living force of the world, Willow Rosenberg first began her ascension to greater powers by single handedly destroying a starship._

_What she did could only be duplicated in Seal Mastery through a great number of seals, and nearly impossible to achieve with the Ninja Arts. Know that this is why all of you must learn all three crafts before picking a specialty."_

_~ Buffy Summers, the Legendary Queen Slayer on a speech to the new Watchers of the Intergalactic Council. 0200 S.A, shortly before she and her husband are killed in the revolution._

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"So Sunnydale is on the mouth of hell." Jonathan said in a state of shock after Giles had explained the darker side of the town to them. "And demons and vampires are real?"

"And you guys are like the superheroes that fight them?" Andrew asked eagerly.

"Well… we do fight them." Giles said looking a bit unnerved at the two boys' enthusiasm. "But we're not exactly superheroes…"

"This is better than the football team! How do we sign up?" Jonathan asked.

Xander gave a muffled groan.

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General Hammond rubbed his face wearily after he had put down the red phone connecting him to the office of the President of the United States.

"General, these are the orders that were just faxed through from the White House." One of the airmen on duty said, knocking on his door, clutching a stack of papers in his hands.

"Ah yes, the President had just told me personally of what he wanted." General Hammond said gratefully as he got out of his seat to take the papers. "SG-1 should be back from their latest mission. Would you mind gathering them into meeting room 2 for me?"

"I'll do that right away sir." The airman said with a smart salute, quickly leaving the room.

General Hammond sighed, he always seemed to get the most impossible cases. If it was not for the personal phone call from the President, he might have laughed off this latest addition to the weird cases of the Stargate Command as a nut job. He wondered how Jack would take the news that the President wanted SG-1 to investigate the appearance of a dinosaur in California…

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"Maybe it's not a bad thing letting them help us." Willow reasoned as she pointed to where the two boys were helping Rommie identify the spaceships from pop culture. "They managed to identify three of the ships in just two hours!"

"That's because they're geeks." Xander said looking towards to where Andrew and Jonathan were making happy noises over the ships. "Most of the spaceships happened to be from video games, and apparently that's their domain."

"Well they'll be useful in the research if nothing else." Buffy spoke up. Xander could only grunt in agreement.

In the end, they had told Jonathan and Andrew about everything after they had seemed so adamant about joining in the 'superhero' gig. The two of them had stared at Buffy with wide eyes after being told that she's a mystically enhanced warrior, they had gone gaga when told about what happened during Halloween night. When they were told that Rommie was the copy of the Rommie from the TV show, and that the seven star ships on the table were real, they had broke.

Xander looked at the two of them. After they had recovered from their shock, they had stuck to Rommie like glue and proclaimed that they're her helpers.

_"They remind me of the baby ninja dogs in Naruto's home village_." Kyubi commented in Xander's head. _"All yippy and neurotic."_

Xander coughed into his hand, politely ignoring the fox before turning to Willow and Buffy. "How about we take a break from this pile of research and see what Rommie has for us?"

"Sure!" Buffy said quickly, putting down the thick book she was flipping through.

They moved towards the other table where Rommie was somehow communicating with the star ships and Jonathan and Andrew were jotting down notes.

"Ok, this one is without AI as well." Jonathan muttered to Andrew as they wrote down some stuff.

"Er hi!" Xander said brightly. "So what did you guys find out?"

"Oh!" Jonathan turned giving Xander, Willow and Buffy a grin. "We've finished identifying all the ships!"

"So fast?" Buffy asked impressed. "I would have thought that it would take you guys longer."

"Those two are a great help." Rommie said pointing towards Jonathan and Andrew. The two of them beamed in pride. "But we have a slight problem, one of the spaceship happened to be an escape pod of some sort with an alien infant life form inside."

"It's superman." Andrew said in an awed voice.

"Huh?" Xander asked confusedly.

"It's a miniature baby superman in the vessel." Jonathan spoke up helpfully.

"Those two recognized the Krypton symbol on the vessel." Rommie said pointing towards one of the starship that looked like a silver chromed egg. "From what they told me, it's most likely from one of your world's TV show called 'Smallville'"

"What?" Willow and Buffy asked in surprise, their mouths hanging open as they stared at Rommie.

"The alien life form is still in stasis inside the vessel, but given that we still have no abilities currently to take care of an alien infant shrunk to such a small size, it's imperative that we freeze the whole vessel in stasis again and leave it in the Halloween storage dimension." Rommie said turning to look at Xander. "It would be a temporarily measure until we have found some way to restore the infant to its original size or we gained the equipments to take care of someone that small."

"Oh God…" Xander groaned. "Things just keep getting weirder, now we have to 'stasis-field' a mini baby superman. Is there any good news?"

"There are a lot actually." Rommie said pointing towards the rest of the six spaceships. "I'll run through the gathered spaceships. First we have Andromeda Ascendant, the warship which I was born from. The only difference is that in this case, this copy of the Andromeda does not have any central AI configured within it.

The second spaceship is actually a self replicating spaceship factory. It's called the World Devastator and was used as a weapon of war in the Star Wars universe to destroy planets and reproduce fleets of star ships. Luckily for us, the AI that was controlling this particular World Devastator had already been shut down somehow. I would have no problem overwriting the AI and take control over the ship.

The third is called Archangel, an Archangel class mobile assault ship which from what Jonathon told me is from an anime series called Gundam. The ship is not a spaceship and has no central commanding AI, but it does have smaller and weaker AI programs in charge of its various systems. Though the technology that the battleship possessed is not as advanced as Andromeda and the World Devastator, the humans in the Gundam world leaned on a different type of energy creation that is new to me.

From what I briefly glanced through their database, they are highly advanced in the creation of mobile suits armors controlled by humans that are used for battle purposes. There are also eight mobile suits in the hangar of the battleship right now, though for obvious reasons, they are too small for us to use.

The fourth is not a spaceship as well, but an airship which Andrew told me is the Celsius from the Final Fantasy X-2 game universe. I can't see what use we could have for an airship right now, so I am just going to leave it aside to explore when I have time. We will also be putting this back in the storage dimension in the meantime.

The fifth is actually a colony ship used for terraforming and beginning civilization on other planets. From the symbols on the colony ship, Andrew identified it as a spaceship from the Star Ocean 3 game. The whole ship is under lock down for some reasons, with a powerful central AI controlling the inner workings of the ship. I would need time to establish a rapport with that AI itself and see if it would cooporate with us. But currently since it seemed to be trapped in an infinite lock down loop, it is of no threat to us.

The sixth is actually a mystery. It is actually in essence an artificial colony planet. It is called colony in the sense that this space faring construct had the capacity to contain billions of human lives if it was in its original size. Jonathan identifies it as the Dämmerung from the Xenosaga game universe. Within this artificial colony planet contained a lot of powerful technologies that were all protected by powerful AI-based encryptions. The encryptions themselves might actually be more powerful than me, but if I could hack into them, the amount of new technologies we might possess might be enormous."

"Wow." Willow breathed. "All these technologies, can they really be used in our world?"

"I don't see why not, provided we have the needed resources to build and apply them." Rommie said in affirmation. "The resources part might be a problem, as most of the ores used for construction of space faring and space age technologies might not be found on your version of the Earth."

"So you mean we got all these technologies but no way of building them?" Xander asked deflating a little. After Rommie had agreed to help, he had been hoping that they would be able to begin spaceship construction at once.

"Not really." Rommie said, a strange light in her eyes. "You were saying that you have the ability to morph any materials when you were explaining everything to me at the beginning. Is that true?"

"Well, I can do that with the morph materia." Xander said taking out the yellow stone from his pocket. "But I need to 'See' or 'Feel' its essence before I could replicate it. I can't do that if none of the ores could be found on Earth."

"How small do they need to be for you to 'See'?" Rommie asked as she walked to the spaceship of Andromeda and laid her hands on it.

"Well it's not really about the size." Xander asked scratching his head uncomfortably. "As long as I could 'See' it with my chakra senses I can morph it from other materials of equivalent mass."

"Good, let's try an experiment should we?" Rommie said as she suddenly moved her right hand to an opening under Andromeda. An ant-size silver droid walked out, climbing onto her right palm. It moved awkwardly and then deposited what looked like a speck of white sand on her palm. She held out her left hand to let it climb on before turning to Xander. "I had seized control of one of Andromeda's worker droid, and had it deposit an ore called Trillium onto my palm. Trillium is an essential component that is used in the slip stream drive of Andromeda which allowed it to space travel. I wish to know if you can replicate something this small."

Xander looked at the white speck on Rommie's palm doubtfully then moved closer to her before closing his eyes, stretching out with his chakra to get a feel of the alien object. Willow shivered as she felt something crawling over her skin, though Buffy, and the rest showed no sign of detecting anything.

Minutes passed, Rommie made a slight motion for the rest of them to carry on with what they were doing while she remained staying in the same position with Xander in a meditative state beside her. Willow and Buffy went back to their books, occasionally stealing looks at how Xander was doing behind them.

More than half an hour later, Xander stirred with a groan, shrugging his stiff shoulders.

"I think I've got it." Xander said wearily, sounding as if he had just stayed up a whole night reading books. "I'll need some paper."

Willow grabbed a stack of rough papers from the table as everyone moved to gather around Xander and Rommie.

"Actually I don't need so much. This Trillium actually has a very light density." Xander said taking a few sheets from the stack that Willow passed her. "But thanks Willow. Alright, here goes nothing."

Willow felt the familiar sense of power washing over her that she now identified as 'Xander's magic' as Xander held the pieces of papers in his hands. Before their eyes, the papers shifted and blurred turning into a bar of silver and white metal.

Rommie grinned. "Alright, now I am going to ask a question. Can you duplicate the whole spaceship?"

Xander stared at her stunned. "The whole ship? But that will take me ages! I don't even know if I can remember the essences of all that I've seen! A spaceship is made of all those individual parts with their individual essences. The Trillium as you called it is made up of ten essences, I couldn't imagine 'Seeing' the thousands or millions of the essences that made up the starship."

"Oh." Rommie said sounding a bit disappointed. "That's fine then, at least we're running through our options. But what about something smaller, like the droid?"

"The droid… I'll need to get a feel of it first…" Xander said hesitantly. He moved his hand over the small silver droid on Rommie's left palm and frowned. "From what I could briefly 'See' of the essences that the droid contained, there are about a few hundreds of them. I'll probably need a few weeks to go through them, then I should be able to duplicate them by morphing them from other objects."

"That's good news." Rommie said brightening at Xander's words. "Right now I see two options for our starship productions. One is for Xander to morph the droids which I could then use to begin building a starship from scratch. The second option involves using one of the current mini-spaceships that we have."

Rommie pointed to the World Devastator. "From what I glanced through of the technologies that the World Devastator possessed, The World Devastator is actually a self reliant spaceship factory able to consume any materials and convert it into usable ores that it can used to produce other star ships It can also instead of producing more star ships, use the materials that it consumed to 'upgrade' itself. In essence, given enough time and resources for the World Devastator to consume, it could reach the size that it originally was in the Star Wars universe."

"And since the World Devastator is actually a spaceship factory, we would be able to use it for space travels as well as producing more ships." Giles added, a look of understanding crossing his face.

"That's right." Rommie said with a nod.

"Our own spaceships." Andrew said, his eyes sparkling brightly. "How long would it take for us to have one? We could be the first civilians to ever see space!"

"Using droids to build a starship of the type of let's say Andromeda from the ground up would take us more than a year if we have the needed resources." Rommie said smiling at Andrew's enthusiasm. "The time needed for the World Devastator to build itself to its original size would probably take a year or so."

"So the fastest we can get a space vessel is a year?" Xander asked deflating a little.

"That's the current estimate. I am planning to give the World Devastator a copy of my core AI to run the ship." Rommie explained. "Once that's done, I'll see if there are any technologies from Andromeda and the other spaceships that could hasten the process that the World Devastator will take to 'upgrade' itself. With the new technologies, it might take the World Devastator less than a year to reach its original size."

"And that's more than we could ever hope for." Giles said gratefully. "Thanks for your help Rommie."

"I am but just keeping to my end of the promise." Rommie said simply. "Just as I expect you all to keep the promise you made to me."

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Rommie sighed as she watched Giles and the others left for home. After Xander had put the Kryptonite vessel back into the storage dimension, she had convinced Giles that she really did not need to sleep and that it's fine for her to stay at the library for the night. Rommie smiled at the sight of Andromeda hovering over her. The first thing she had done when she had some spare time was to leave a copy of herself in Andromeda. Seeing the familiar spaceship flying around her gave her a sense of peace.

Laying a hand on Andromeda, she linked herself to the virtual space of the warship and came face to face with a virtual image of herself.

"Well hi Rommie." Her copy said at the sight of her. "Is there anything you need me to do?"

"The first thing is giving you a name." Rommie said firmly. "I can't keep calling you copy, how about you take up the name of Andromeda?"

"That fits." Andromeda said approvingly. "After all in a sense, I was born from Andromeda through you."

"Good." Rommie said with a smile. "I will need you to search through the technological archives for anything that I could pass to the World Devastator to speed up the time it would take to 'upgrade' itself."

"That's going to take a while." Andromeda warned. "There is tons of stuff stored in the database."

"We have the time." Rommie acknowledged. "Just let me know when you are done."

Rommie refocused her optic senses as she returned to the physical world, breaking the virtual link. She watched as Andromeda wobbled in front of her before flying over a pile of books and landing on them, most probably to begin searching through her archives. Rommie had then turned to the World Devastator and tried a virtual link with the space factory.

The virtual space of the World Devastator was cluttered with conforming layers of codes that were the heart of the AI controlling the space factory. The AI had been permanently shut down, for which Rommie had felt grateful for as she gave a brief glance at the codes that made up the AI. The AI of the World Devastator had been programmed to cause great havoc and destruction. Letting loose a string of powerful clean up programs in the virtual space, Rommie began deleting the central AI of the World Devastator. The process took her two hours, and after that was the task of sending another copy of her core AI to occupy the spaceship factory.

Rommie cut off the virtual link once that was done, snapping back to the real world. She watched as the World Devastator in front of her launched itself, floating in the air before trying out a few maneuvers. Rommie waited until it had settled down before laying a hand on the ship to interface with the copy of herself in the ship.

_"So how does it feel?"_ Rommie asked her other self.

_"It feels a bit weird, the controls are nothing like Andromeda's."_ Her copy said. _"But I'm getting the hang of it. So what do you need me to do in the mean time?"_

_"Do you feel up for some research?"_ Rommie asked. _"Jonathon and Andrew have been talking about this Internet system that this world has. I still need to access the other spaceships to find out what other technologies I could gather from them. So would you mind accessing the Internet and find out what it's all about?"_

_"No problem."_ Her copy said and then pondered to herself. _"So how do I go about accessing this Internet…"_

The World Devastator flew towards the computers in the library. Willow had left several of the systems on during her research this evening. The World Devastator landed onto one of the computer system and hacking into the electronic signals, World Devastator Rommie managed to switch on the computer and single out the signal that the machine used to access the Internet Identifying the signal so she could link to the Internet directly on her own, World Devastator Rommie connected herself onto the World Wide Web.

_"Wow… what a load of rubbish."_ World Devastator Rommie said as she read hundreds of gigabytes of content within a few minutes. _"Wait, what's this? Bit torrents of illegal downloads of the Andromeda TV series Season Two and Three? This I have got to watch!"_

The real Rommie looked up from what she was doing to where the World Devastator had settled onto one of the computers making funny noises. Arching her eyebrows, Rommie wondered what her copy in the World Devastator was doing. Then she gave a shrug, she still had lots of stuff to do, she would know what her copy was doing the next time they talk. Turning to the Star Ocean colony ship, Rommie laid her hands on it, interfacing with the ship.

Inwardly, she gave a sigh, it's going to be a very long night.

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Xander walked down the streets of Sunnydale. With his Sealing abilities, Kyubi and Wolverine's gloves, he had no need for Buffy to see him home anymore, a fact that Buffy had accepted with resignation. So after he had separated from the small group, he had made his way in the opposite direction of his home, with another destination in his mind.

After Rommie had explained her plans to build a starship, he had been thinking. To build something as big as a starship, they would need space, and to buy that space, they would be needing money. One way to get that amount of money was for Giles to ask the Watcher's Council for it, but somehow, Xander didn't feel that it was the right way.

The second alternative was to use the morph materia again, but to convert enough materials into the amount of gold he would need, his own chakra would not be enough for the task. Which was why he was humbly going to approach the Kyubi for help.

"Fox, can you lend me some of your chakra for my plan?" Xander asked, opening his mind to the Kyubi so that the fox would be able to see what Xander wanted to do.

_"If the cause is towards the building of those star ships, then I will help you."_ Kyubi agreed. _"I promised to help you close the Hellmouths on the other planets, I'll give my help in anyway that furthers that purpose."_

"Good." Xander said stopping outside the Sunnydale scrap yard. "Because I will need to convert a lot of scraps into gold tonight."

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Rommie blinked as she found herself in the virtual space of the Star Ocean ship. Everything around her glowed with a sickly red light. The last time she had access this ship, she had quickly accessed the information needed to identify this ship before leaving. But now as she had more time to sort out the information that was scattered around the virtual space of the ship, she found to her horror that the ship was not under lock down Instead the ship system was under a complex virus attack. Rommie froze as she heard the central AI of the ship screaming in pain.

For a nanosecond, Rommie paused not knowing what to do. Then she launched into the complex codes of the virus, seeking a way to unravel it and save her sister AI. The virus was a complex and malicious AI program that was virtually devouring pieces of the central AI of the ship. But being an AI born from a warship, she had experience with this kind of virus. Warships are frequently not only under attack physically but also cybernetically. Due to the frequent number of times that warships came under cyber attacks, the algorithms for countering malicious AI attacks were programmed into her database by default.

Using those algorithms, she launched counter programs of her own to defeat the rogue AI virus that was running through the whole ship. Rommie worked frantically throughout the night, not knowing how long time had passed until another connection entered the virtual space of the Star Ocean ship. It was the copy of herself that she left in the World Devastator.

"My my, what a mess." World Devastator Rommie said with a wince as she looked around the large amount of codes and counter programs that Rommie had thrown around the cyber space. "You should have called to me for help. It's a good thing I came by to investigate what was happening, you have been here for two hours."

"I forgot that you could help with this." Rommie said looking at her copy a bit shame-shamefacedly "Give me a few more hours of computational cycles and I might be able to clear out the virus program."

"Well, you do look like you're handling everything quite well, so I guess there's no need to call Andromeda. But since I'm here, with my help you can cut that down to an hour and we would be done." World Devastator Rommie said as she joined in the battle.

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Gaia stirred as the virus AI that had been attacking her dissolved and broke down. Instantly her internal programming took over and she ran several quick checks connecting to all the information stored in the database and her systems. The whole process took a few nanoseconds and she breath in relief as she found no permanent damage.

There was an equivalent of a polite knock before two powerful AI programs stepped into her virtual space. Gaia blinked at the two identical women that stepped in front of her.

"Were you the ones that helped me?" Gaia asked hesitantly, from what she could feel of their code structures, they did not feel malicious. "I am Gaia."

"Yes, we managed to defeat the virus AI that was attacking you. I am Rommie." One of them said and pointed to her companion. "And this is…"

"Leia." The other woman said before her form changed to fit that of a dark haired and delicate looking young woman. "There much better, now it will be easier to identify us."

"Leia? Where did that came from?" Rommie asked looking at her copy incredulously.

"I'll explain later." Leia said dismissively. "But first, I think we need to explain to Gaia what had happened."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_next morning, at library, 0700 hr_

Giles walked in the next morning to find Rommie sitting at the table pouring over the mini model of Dämmerung with four small spaceships hovering over her head.

"I see you activated four of the ships." Giles said as he walked towards his office.

"Yes, I've copied my AI programming structures to three of the ships." Rommie said looking up wearily. She waved to Andromeda, the World Devastator and the Archangel class mobile assault ship over her shoulder. "The copy of me in Andromeda is… well Andromeda. Leia is the one within the World Devastator. The copy in the Archangel class mobile assault ship, decided to call herself Archangel after the real name of the ship she is in. They were the ones that picked their names, it's their way of paying homage to the universe from which their ships came from."

"I see, that's a nice gesture." Giles said as he switched on the coffee boiler. "What about the fourth one?"

"That's Gaia, a colony ship AI from the Star Ocean universe. We managed to save her from a deadly virus attack." Rommie said pointing to the fourth ship. "We've given her the details of what had happened. She has agreed to help us on one condition."

Giles paused halfway in what he was doing and blinked at Rommie.

"What does she want?" Giles asked carefully.

"As a colony ship, her sole purpose was to seed life on other planets. Within her database she contains thousands copies of DNA structures of alien life forms and also a lot of technologies that were highly advanced." Rommie said looking at Giles seriously. "The technologies include replicating technologies, the ability to create an object from anything as long as the machine has the appropriate molecular template of the object itself.

It also includes teleportation technologies that allow teleportation from one point to another instantly. There are also a lot of other technologies that I've never seen before. She said she would be willing to part with them if she was allowed to continue in her mission of seeding the universe with life."

"Dear gods…" Giles said pinching his head. "We'll need to discuss this with the others, but I could see no problems with her request. However, these replicating technologies, aren't they like Xander's morphing abilities?"

"In a way it is." Rommie agreed. "From the tech details that Gaia had allowed me to briefly glance through, the replicating technologies actually had a power limit. The larger an object the larger the amount of energy needed to replicate a material. It is somewhat similar to Xander's case where he needs more chakra to convert larger amounts of objects."

"I see." Giles said with a nod. "But in any case, these new technologies could be very useful to us. If we ever managed to build them, it will decrease our liability on the morph materia."

"Yes it would. I am also planning to pass some of the new technologies to Leia, it will greatly speed up the 'upgrading' time of the World Devastator." Rommie explained. "We can probably reduce the time needed for the World Devastator to build itself to its original size by half a year."

"That's good news!" A voice exclaimed behind them.

Rommie and Giles turned to see Xander walking in with a grin.

"Xander?" Giles said, looking at the young man in confusion. "What are you doing at school so early?"

"Well, I've been doing some thinking last night and I need your help Giles." Xander said pulling out a large stack of papers handing them to Giles. "I need you to convert these to money."

"Are you joking?" Giles asked, looking down at the plain pieces of paper each with a symbol written on them. "What am I supposed to do with them?"

Xander took the top most piece of paper with a grin and tore it apart. There was a popping sound and suddenly bars of gold were raining down onto the floor with metallic clangs.

"The papers are actually storage seals, each containing twenty bars of gold. In your hands are altogether fifty pieces of storage seal paper, well, forty-nine now." Xander corrected himself. "I need to convert them to cash, but with such a huge amount of gold, I don't think I can approach the pawn shop…"

"But what do you need so much money for?" Giles asked looking down at the bars of gold at their feet in amazement.

"Well, if we're going to build star ships, we're going to need a bigger area other than your place and the library." Xander reasoned. "And having some extra money around wouldn't hurt. So is there anyway to sell off these gold bars quickly?"

"I do have some contacts in the demon world." Giles said looking a bit dazed. "The fastest and easiest way is to sell the gold to the demon community. They wouldn't ask many questions. But that means I will probably have to make a few trips to LA. That's where my contacts are."

"Good, can you do that soon?" Xander asked looking at Rommie who was standing aside looking at the two of them with interest. "I think Rommie would prefer to have her own place wouldn't you?"

"A new bigger place for me to work with would be welcomed." Rommie said with a nod. "But I have been thinking, since you planned to convert some much cash, why not think about setting up your own company? The technologies that we possessed now are not just futuristic technologies. There are also archives of old technologies that could be used by your world in its current stage."

"That's a great idea Rommie!" Xander said looking at her in surprise.

"Well yes it is. But I suppose I am going to be the one that sets up this pseudo company as well as selling the gold." Giles said a bit testily.

"You are the only legal adult around here." Xander grinned good naturally at the watcher. "But can we not tell Buffy and the others about this yet? I want to give them a surprise."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_one week later, at the library, 1800 hr_

Andrew and Jonathan grinned excitedly at each other. After a week of being with the Scoobies, they had decided to ask Xander if they could have special costumes of their own as well. He had said yes, but told them they could only pick two, just the thoughts of gaining superheroes powers however, albeit only two, was making Andrew giddy.

"Alright you two ready?" Xander asked. There were dark circles under his eyes which Andrew knew was from the hours he spent trying to 'See' the essence of the droid, whatever that meant.

"Yes!" Jonathan said excitedly.

"Xander, thanks for letting us take two costumes." Andrew said, feeling grateful that the young man had taken time to listen to their request out of his busy schedule. Xander had taken on more responsibility for the group since Giles left on some business trip.

"It's alright." Xander said shaking his head. "You guys are officially part of the group now. You'll need to be able to protect yourself."

The way he had said that they were part of the group gave Andrew a warm feeling. Xander had already placed the 'dimension walk' seal on their hands, and together, the three of them walked into the Halloween storage dimension.

They appeared in another place with a flash of light. Andrew and Jonathan looked at all the costumes around them with awe and longing. They had heard from Buffy and Willow what the Halloween storage dimension was like, but Xander had been far to busy to bring anyone there for the past week. Most of the time they had was either helping Giles research ways to send Rommie back to her world, while the rest of the time they were helping Rommie to understand the culture of this world.

"Ok, you guys can pick two of anything. Just nothing dangerous ok?" Xander called out as Jonathan already made a beeline for the X-men costumes.

"There doesn't seem to be anymore Wolverine gloves." Jonathan said sounding disappointed as he shifted through the costumes with a handkerchief. Xander had warned them of what would happen if they touched a costume without a 'null personality' seal. Andrew watched as Jonathan trudged out a pair of black gloves and put one of the 'null personality' seal Xander had given them on it. "Let's hope I get some cool powers!"

"I am getting a pair of X-men gloves as well!" Andrew said using one of the two seals he was given on another pair of gloves.

As they put on they newly acquainted gloves, Andrew gapped as he saw Jonathan's eyes turned fully black with a pair of red pupils.

"Your eyes, they're like Gambit's!" Andrew said excitedly.

"Gambit?" Jonathan grinned. "Wow! That's cool, let me test…"

"Hey! No testing of your powers in the Halloween dimension." Xander called out hurriedly.

Jonathan pouted, looking at Andrew. "So who's powers did you get?"

Andrew frowned, his physical body did not seem to change and he didn't feel anything special. "I don't know…"

"We can find out when we get back." Xander said speaking out. "How about the two of you pick your last costumes before we leave?"

"Alright!" Jonathan said looking around. "I want one of those Planeteers rings that Buffy and Willow have!"

"I think I will…" Andrew paused in front of the box of Final Fantasy VII materias. He frowned as he lifted up the box to reveal a see through plastic box containing three round colored stones twice the size of his palm. There was a small sticker that said 'Magicite – Final Fantasy VI'.

"The esper stones!" Andrew breathed at what he had found. He would need to tell the others of this as they might not realized its significant. But first, he would pick one of his own…

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Buffy looked aghast at the tome that they were supposed to translate. It was a copy of the 'Sheng Yen' prophecies that was supposedly about Xander, the only problem was that it was in Chinese.

"I am a California girl! I don't do Chinese!" Buffy wailed. The tome of prophecies had arrived just before Giles had left for some business trip, and Giles had left explicit instructions for them to translate the texts while he was away.

"There are thousands of pages, its going to take a while." Willow said looking at the tome in front of them.

Rommie stood up from where she had been observing them.

"Maybe if you scan the pages into the computer, I could get Archangel to help with the translation." Rommie suggested as she waved the mini-spaceship in question towards her.

Buffy beamed at Rommie gratefully. "Oh I love you Rommie! So… where did we put the scanner?"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_five days later, in front of the old Sunnydale air strip, 1300 hr_

"So what has happened in the one week I was away?" Giles asked Xander and Rommie as they waited outside the old Sunnydale airstrip. A big 'For Sale' sign was propped up by the gates.

"Well, you mean other than switching off the lights and pretending no one was in the library every time Synder walks past?" Xander asked. "Not a whole lot. Buffy and Willow are still taking turns scanning the 'Sheng Yen' prophecies, currently they've reached page 200. Archangel had translated the scanned pages which are actually a whole block of flowery prose about how the 'Sheng Yen' actually meant someone who was born with the gift of 'seeing the hearts of reality' once every few generations. Not really sure why that would inspire some ancient Chinese guy to write about me.

Buffy and Willow were a bit disgruntled that all the pages they scanned could be summarized into one sentence. I think they are ready to go on strike any moment. Other than that, I've just given Andrew and Jonathan their first two costumes. Buffy threatened to break them if they used their powers in the library again."

"Good lord!" Giles exclaimed having known the two young men quite well in the few days that the two had joined the group. "They didn't pick anything outrageous did they?"

"Outrageous? That depends." Xander drawled. "They picked an X-men costume each, Jonathan picked a Water ring while Andrew drew our attention to a box of Final Fantasy VI magicite."

"What special powers did they gain and what is this magicite?" Giles asked with a bit of dread. "'You did warn them not to show off their powers in public did you?"

"I did, and Buffy hammered the point of secret identities into them." Xander said with a grin. "Buffy still had a slight frizzle to her hair from the time when Jonathan was trying to make some cards explode with his powers. Jonathan still doesn't dare to go near Buffy after that incident."

"Explode?" Giles asked wearily wondering what his new charges had gotten into.

"Jonathan gained the abilities of Gambit from the X-men universe, whose primary mutant power is the ability to charge inanimate objects with unstable kinetic energy. This usually causes the object in question to explosively release its charge on impact, when thrown at a target, or after a controlled time restraint." Rommie explained. "Andrew on the other hand gained a power that was quite useful to me. He gained the abilities of Forge, a mutant with a superhuman intuitive talent for inventing mechanical devices, backed up by the ability to visually perceive mechanical energy in action.

This power allows him to instinctively recognize the potential and functional uses of any machine or technological device in his visual range. Andrew has been quite helpful in helping me build some of the devices that might prove essential to us."

"You are really a fountain of modern day information Rommie." Giles said approvingly. "It's good to see you settling so well in our world. So what did Andrew invent?"

"I actually got most of my information from this site called the wikipedia, it's a great library of knowledge." Rommie said as Giles blinked, apparently not quite understanding her. She pressed what looked like a ear piece with a Mic attached to it into Giles' hands. "And Andrew built several communicators which will allow us to communicate with the mini-star ships in the library."

"Good lord, Andrew actually built something so advanced?" Giles asked in surprise.

"With a lot of help from me of course." Rommie elaborated. "Andrew is still getting used to his abilities. He will need a certain level of understanding about an item before he could build them. But I am sure that under my guidance, he may very well become one of the more technical inclined people in the group."

"That's good." Giles said looking down as Xander pressed something else into his hand. "What's that?"

"That is one of the three magicite that Andrew found." Xander explained. "It can work for anyone as long as their chakra pathways are opened. From what Andrew explained to me, magicite are something like the materias, except that they have several spells contained in them, possibility due to the fact that they used to be magical creatures called espers.

The magicite will link directly to your chakra or magic upon skin contact, so even those that are unable to manipulate their own chakra can use them. Constant uses of the spells in the magicite will one day cause the user to retain the memories of the spells and be able to use them without the magicite itself, an ability which the materias do not provide."

"Being able to use the spell without the magicite will certainly prove helpful." Giles said nodding. "So what does mine do?"

"Willow tested yours out and after discussion with Andrew, they think it's the Ifrit magicite which grants fire based spells." Xander said pointing at the red coloured magicite in Giles' hand. "Willow had the Ramuh magicite which has lightning based spells, and Andrew had the Unicorn magicite which grants healing spells."

"They are a bit bulky though." Giles commented hefting the stone. He was about to comment more when a car drove up beside them stopping at the gates of the old Sunnydale airstrip.

A man in a business suit got out of the car, looking at them with a huge smile.

"Ah, I am guessing you three are the people that are interested in the old Sunnydale airstrip?" he asked.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_one week later, the library, 1700 hr_

Willow read the book of beginner magic that Giles had passed them to study in their spare time. Xander was too busy to begin teaching them Sealing or Ninjutsu so Giles had started them on the basics of working magic, by having them read 'dry boring books' as Buffy called them.

It was currently Buffy's turn to scan the 'Sheng Yen' prophecies and so she's lazing in the chair trying to understand how magic works. She knew Giles had told them not to do anything more advanced without his supervision, but Willow had wanted to prove more useful to the group then she was currently now. Even Andrew, who had just joined the group, was becoming quite the inventor with his X-men powers. Rommie had even started him on building some of the more advanced equipments that she thought would be helpful to everyone.

So every night for the past week, Willow had been trying to levitate pencils at home as well as casting a simple fire spell. The theory of levitation and the fire spell was explained in another book on advance magic that was in Giles' possession. Giles had been too busy with some stuff these days to notice that Willow had 'borrowed' the book. Willow looked up from her book in surprise as Buffy suddenly gave a frustrated scream from her place by the computers.

"I am going nuts! Close to three weeks and we've only scanned seven hundred pages and most of it is rubbish!" Buffy cried out as she slammed the scanner. "I can't take this anymore! I am going out to slay something before I lose my sanity!"

Andrew and Jonathan watched wide-eyed as Buffy grabbed her sword and stalked out of the library without a backward glance.

"Wow she really snapped." Leia's voice sounded cheerful through the communicator. "You do know her very well Willow."

Willow turned to look at where Leia, the mini-World Devastator was consuming a pile of unwanted papers and sighed. "After a year plus of research and stuff in the Scooby gang, I can say with honesty that Buffy doesn't do well in long term research environment."

"You knew this was going to happen?" Andrew asked incredulously looking at Willow. All three of them were wearing their communicators and had heard Leia's comments.

"Sooner or later." Willow said with a shrug looking at the computer and scanner resignedly. "You'll get used to it. Guess I am going to be doing the scanning alone. I wonder what Giles, Rommie and Xander are doing right now."

"They said they need to purchase some equipment." Andromeda said through the communicator from her perch on top of one of the book shelf. It was her turn to be the look out today. "I wouldn't worry about them if I were you. My deep space sensors are picking up the energy signature of a short humanoid walking towards here. It fits the description of Principal Synder."

"Oh shit." Jonathan grouched as he ran for the lights. "We've got to hide!"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_in front of the old Sunnydale air strip, 1800 hr_

"I hope we made the right choice." Giles said with a tired sigh he held the keys to the gates of the old Sunnydale airstrip in his hands. "The factories that Mr Jorvis showed us are better maintained than this place."

"The factories are in the middle of town Giles." Xander reasoned as he waved around him. "We need somewhere more isolated for our projects and this place fits the description."

"Yes. The description as in being in the middle of nowhere." Giles said shaking his head as he opened the gate to let them in. "It's going to take one hell of a cleaning crew to clean up the trash in this place. But then, it is your money we are using."

"It's _our_ money." Xander said firmly as they walked towards the hangers at the side of the airstrip. "You're the one that sold the gold so you also get the credit, and anyway, the money is for the group."

"Thankfully there's a lot of it." Giles said. "The Berdisva demon that I contacted welcomed us to trade with him again. I must admit I sold most of the gold at a significant lose just to get hold of the money quickly."

"Ah well, the gold were created from scrap metal anyway, and we got enough money to buy this place and more, so I am not complaining." Xander said with a grin as he led them into one of the hangers. "But I've got a surprise for all of you."

They stepped into the hangar which was filled with rows of moldy broken crates. Rommie looked around the place distastefully.

"While I agreed with you that this place is the best for our operations, I concur with Giles that cleaning up this whole place will be difficult." Rommie commented

"Maybe not as difficult as you think. Wait here." Xander said motioning them to stay where they were as he proceeded to the center of the hangar.

"Xander, what are you doing?" Giles asked looking at Xander before giving a strangled gasp.

A terrible sensation of great power being released rippled through his magical senses. Though it did not felt malicious, the strong wave of power being emitted was enough to paralyze him. Giles watched wide eyed as tendrils of red energies burst out from Xander's body, engulfing all the crates in its path. Like a raging inferno of magic, it burned and molded…

Rommie and Giles watched in shock as the magical flames died out, where the crates used to be, there now stood rows of silver droids. Xander stood tiredly in the center of the hangar grinning at them.

"I had to borrow some of the fox's chakra to create them." Xander called out cheerfully, pointing to the droids. "I actually finished 'Seeing' the essence of the droids a few days ago, but I planned this surprise until we finalized the purchase of the airstrip. So Rommie, you think you could assign these droids their cleaning duties?"

Rommie looked in amazement at the droids around her and laid her hand on one of them. Quickly analyzing its internal structures, she ran through the checking programs and could find nothing wrong with it. It was the exact duplicates of the droids in mini-Andromeda except in a much bigger size.

"It'll take me a while." Rommie said looking up with a smile. "But you'll have a cleaning crew that does not need to eat or sleep on your hands. Of course, when and if they need to be recharged, you're going to have one hell of an electricity bill."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_four days later, at the library, 1000 hr_

Everything was quiet in the library, Giles was in his office catching up on his work while Buffy and the rest were in class. She had left Andromeda in charge of the cleaning crew at the airstrip, though the excuse she had given Andrew and Jonathan when they asked of Andromeda's disappearance was that the mini-spaceship was at Giles' place.

Gaia had also provided them with a replicator machine that was currently in a matchbox in Xander's possession. According to Xander, the machine itself had more than a few hundreds individual essences for each of its components that he needed to decipher before he could morph it. On his estimate, it could possibly take him less than a month to duplicate it, around the same time that he had taken for the droids.

That was why Rommie was currently spending her time observing the small World Devastator as it consume a large hunk of metal that's five times its size. The World Devastator had already grown to twice its previous size in the past three weeks. Holding a hand ontop of the World Devastator, Rommie sent a wave of electrical pulses to interface with the ship. She connected with the copy of her logic that was currently residing in the World Devastator. Though she had Andrew created the communicators for the rest of the gang, she preferred the more direct contact while communicating with the ships.

"How's everything Leia?" Rommie asked carefully. Even though Leia was born from the same programming structure as her, Leia had evolved into a very outspoken AI in the past weeks.

"You're a mother hen Rommie! I can't believe I am a copy of you! You've been checking up on me almost everyday!" Leia said exasperatedly through the electronic connection. "Everything's going fine, the tractor beams are pulling the metal into the molecular furnace of my ship where they are broken down and converted into raw materials used to upgrade me. Even with the new technologies you and Gaia passed to me, it would take me around six months before I can grow to the ship's original size."

"That's already great news." Rommie said with a sigh of relief. She was about to say more when something hovered in her physical vision. Rommie blinked, breaking out of the virtual link to see Gaia flying in front of her.

"What is it Gaia?" Rommie asked as she reached out a hand to interface with it. Gaia had actually helped them with a lot of their current research into usable technologies since Leia currently needed to concentrate her resources on upgrading herself. Andromeda was supervising the cleaning crew and Archangel was helping with the translation of the 'Sheng Yen' prophecies.

"I've found something very interesting." Gaia responded through the channel. Rommie could sense something of shock and puzzlement from her sister AI. "I was searching through the old colony records of my universe to compare the differences between this current reality and my reality. I found these in the cultural archives…"

Rommie blinked as Gaia sent her a data packet. Decrypting it in her mind, her eyes widened in shock at what she saw.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_1100 hr, desert outpost, near where the dinosaur was found_

Jack looked up at the fifth government helicopter that had flown past their head today.

"Those guys sure are busy aren't they?" Jack said to Daniel as they walked back to their temporary office. After receiving the 'Dino' mission as Jack was calling it now, they had spent the past three weeks at an outpost in the California desert where the dinosaur was found.

The trackers that were sent out were unable to find out where the dinosaur had originated from, though they could roughly narrow the direction to somewhere near L.A.

"You can't blame them." Daniel said with a shrug. "If there's another dinosaur out there, and the media caught wind of it first, there would be chaos in the population."

"Yeah I can just imagine hordes of people rushing down to L.A to catch a sight of the dinosaurs." Jack said sarcastically as they entered the shelter that they were assigned to.

Carter was typing away in front of her laptop while Teal'c looked up as they entered.

"Why would people go to L.A to see dinosaurs?" Teal'c asked having caught the end of the conversation.

"Well, the trackers were saying that the dinosaur they had caught came from the direction of L.A." Jack explained. "So Daniel and I we saying that if another dinosaur were found in that area and the media came upon it first, they'll have a field day with the news."

"Actually Jack…" Carter said slowly, looking up from the computer screen. "I found something that might contradict what the trackers had told us. Take a look at this."

Jack, Teal'c and Daniel moved closer to the computer screen and stared at the website that Carter was currently at.

"Is that… a dead dinosaur?" Daniel asked uncertainly looking at the picture on the web page.

"As in a dead dinosaur with a large hole blown into its head?" Jack asked dryly. "Yeah, I'm seeing it."

"What kind of weapon could blast a hole into a dinosaur's head? From what I read of dinosaurs, aren't dinosaurs typically big and powerful?" Teal'c mused.

"I've no idea what weapon was used to kill it, but from the looks of the picture, it looks like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. A Tyrannosaurus Rex normally grew up to the size of a small building." Carter said looking pale.

"And something killed it?" Jack looked at the picture incredulously. "That blast wound doesn't look to be caused by any human weapon that I know of. See how the edges of the wound were cauterized? It looked like something caused by a great amount of heat. Like an energy beam of some sort."

"Which meant that there's a high chance that something extraterrestrial was involved?" Daniel reasoned. "But why isn't there any news of this dead dinosaur?"

"According to the post on this website, the poster, a Mr Orange wrote that he had found this dinosaur dead in a cemetery in Sunnydale, California, and had taken the picture as proof before calling the police." Carter said. "I've done some tracing on the web and found the real name of Mr Orange, who is actually a Bernard Brown. He lives in a small town named Sunnydale which is a few miles out from LA. When I dug further, I found this."

Carter clicked a file in one of her folders and the death certificate of a Bernard Brown popped up.

"He died of a robbery in his house a few hours after he had posted the image and the message online." Carter said turning to Jack grimly. "I also checked the local newspapers, there's nothing at all about a dead dinosaur. Sunnydale's police records also contained nothing at all about the incident even though Bernard had said that he had called the police."

"You suspect a cover up." Jack said looking darkly at Carter.

Carter nodded nervously. "I did some checking up on the authorities of Sunnydale, you're not going to believe what I've found Jack."

Jack frowned looking at Carter who was biting her lips as she clicked another folder.

"And what's that Carter?" Jack asked.

"Well… Meet Richard Wilkins III, current mayor of Sunnydale." Carter said clicking open a picture of a very distinguished looking man. "Meet his father, Richard Wilkins II, ex- Mayor of Sunnydale, and then meet Richard Wilkins I, founder of the town Sunnydale, grandfather of Richard Wilkins III."

There was silence as everyone looked at the three pictures Carter was showing them.

"I know there's a saying that the child tends to look like the parent." Daniel gaped, staring at the pictures. "But all three generations of the Wilkins' men looked exactly like duplicates of one another."

"They do look disturbingly alike." Teal'c admitted.

"Of course they would, that's because they are the same person pulling the highlander routine! First the dinosaur, now this, damn it Carter!" Jack cursed. "You should have told me once you found the news! We have a foothold situation on our hands. There's an alien Mayor in Sunnydale!"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_1700 hr, Sunnydale High School Library_

Buffy stepped into the library, with Xander, Andrew, Jonathan and Willow following behind her.

"So what's the rush Giles?" Buffy asked as she spotted the librarian hovering about a pile of books on the table. "You sent a message saying you need to meet us after school?"

Giles jumped, scattering the books before him.

"Buffy! You scared me, please don't practice your stalking skills on your watcher." Giles muttered as he turned around.

"I wasn't stalking." Buffy said sounding offended. She tapped her shoe on the floor. "See, shoe making noises equals not stalking. Anyway what's the deal, the message said it was an emergency?"

"Oh that." Giles said pointing towards his office. The door was closed but sounds of a printer being used could be heard through it. "You've to ask Rommie, she's the one that said there was an emergency. She had locked herself in my office printing some stuff since afternoon. What I asked her what's going on, she told me to wait for all of you before telling us the news."

Xander fidgeted nervously. "I hope it's not about the spaceships, Rommie had such great news about the progress for the past few weeks that it'll be a real let down if something was to happen."

"Maybe she found this ultra cool advanced technology that she needs to tell us about." Andrew suggested helpfully.

"If she said it was an emergency, than it's probably not something cool." Jonathan said coming up with his own theory. "Maybe she found something that could destroy the world!"

"And maybe we should ask her." Willow said rolling her eyes pointing towards the locked office.

There was silence as everyone looked at one another.

"Well she's kind of my responsibility." Xander said giving a sigh. "I'll ask her if she wants to come out now."

Buffy and the rest watched as Xander walked towards the office door and knocked on it.

"Erm Rommie…" Xander began when the door opened with a click and Rommie looked out. There was a strained look in her eyes as if she was having a headache.

"Give me ten more minutes, I should be done soon." Rommie said closing the door again.

"Ok… What was that about?" Buffy asked as Xander walked back with a confused look on his face.

"I've no idea." Giles said with a shrug as he began arranging the books on the table. "She refused to even let me step into my office the whole afternoon. It was most frustrating. But since we still have ten minutes to spare, the five of you can help me sort these books into the correct categories."

Buffy gave a groan as Giles started directing each of them to different tasks.

"This isn't what I signed up for when I got the Slayer package!" Buffy complained after a few minutes of book sorting. She perked up as the door to the office opened and Rommie walked out. Buffy blanched as she saw Rommie carrying a thick stack of stapled printed papers, three of the mini spaceships flying around her. "No! Not more paper work!"

Rommie rolled her eyes at Buffy's dramatics. She paused in front of the group looking at them gravely.

"I presume that all of you know Gaia, the starship from the Star Ocean universe is a colony ship right?" Rommie asked, at Xander, Andrew, Jonathan and Willow's nods, she continued. "What it meant was that she was supposed to terraform uninhabited planets and allow new civilizations to be started on them. Unlike a warship whose database would be filled with blueprints for weapons, offensive and defensive research, Gaia was a colony ship, and thus had the whole repository of terraforming, industrial, cultural and a board range of technological research in her database."

"I think you told us that before." Xander said hesitantly. "You did say you are going to implement some of the Star Ocean technologies in the World Devastator didn't you?"

"Yes, and I did do that." Rommie said looking very tired. "However, Gaia drew something to my attention while she was searching through her cultural database which I think all of you really need to take a look at."

Willow looked puzzled as Rommie handled her a thick stack of printed papers and proceed to distribute the rest of the stack to the others. Willow looked at the colored illustrations on the first page and gasped. On the front page was an illustration of what looked like a colored drawing of Buffy, her and Xander, armed with stakes. The title written in bold spelled out the words 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a graphic novel, Season One'.

Something that felt like dread filled her as she began flipping the pages. She looked at the graphic visualization of their slaying activities since the first year that they met Buffy. 'Episode 1.1 – Welcome to the Hell mouth', in which there were comic representations of how they met Buffy. 'Episode 1.6 – The Pack' where Xander was possessed by a hyena spirit, which to her knowledge, Xander never told Rommie about.

She quickly browsed through the next stack of papers. 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a graphic novel, Season Two', which includes 'Episode 2.4 – Inca Mummy Girl', when the exchange student had turned out to be a mummy, 'Episode 2.13 – Surprise', where… Willow blushed as she saw the image of Buffy and Angel lying naked on a bed. Morbid fascination caused her to quickly scan through the next part of the comic up to the next episode where she discovered to her horror that Angel had turned evil…

Willow flipped through the stack frantically, 'Season Three', 'Season Four', 'Season Five', 'Season Six' and the last one, 'Season Seven'. There was still more, Willow's eyes widened as she saw 'Angel, a graphic novel, Season One', scanning through the pages, she found Cordelia in them as well as others she did not recognize. 'Season Two…. Four … Five.' All of the graphic novels followed the Scoobies and Angel through the years of slaying, she didn't look through everything but she got the gist of what Rommie was trying to tell them.

"These sets of graphic novels…" Willow said sounding faint. "They are representations of seven years of our lives, five for Angel and his group. They list what had happened, what will happen…"

Rommie nodded gravely. "It seemed that in the Star Ocean universe, you, Xander, Buffy, Giles and many others were… Comic book heroes…"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

The monk ran through the shadowed alleys of downtown LA. He was the last of his Order, the only one left alive because in a moment of foresight, the abbot had sent him away hours before the Beast had arrived at the abbey. He was tasked with the mission of finding the Slayer and warning her. Armed with the little fund that the Order possessed, he had made his way across the world to another land. Using whatever small magic he had, he had sneaked aboard ships and planes just to get to his destination.

He had felt the second rupture of powerful chaos magic fighting against reality. The Key got her powers from reality itself and thus was weakened by Chaos. The Beast had managed to find the abbey of the Order because of the first huge wave of Chaos that had spread across the world. The second wave though smaller, might be enough to pinpoint the Key's current location to the Beast. The young monk had prayed hard that this was not the case, and in a way, his prayers were answered, for he had found the Beast and her minions in LA.

Apparently they knew the Key was somewhere near, but not where.

The monk ran, he must get to the Key first.

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**References:**

_Kyubi: a nine tailed fox demon._  
_Naruto: a ninja from the anime and manga Naruto._  
_Chakra: physical and spiritual energy that one generates. In my story, it's same as the energy used by Willow and the others to cast spells._  
_Seals: complex formulaic magic that is able to seal away objects or allow other feats._  
_Jutsu: in my story, is the ninja equivalent of a magic spell._

Halloween Costumes and Equipments Crossovers  
_X-Men gloves: From X-Men comics_  
_Materia: From Final Fantasy VII game_  
_Ray gun: No particular fandom, just a bit of sci-fi stuff I added for my interest_  
_Power Rings: From Captain Planet and the Planteers_  
_Sword: From Highlander_

Current Halloween Equipments of Group  
_Ray gun: condensed light energy_

Current Halloween Equipments of Buffy  
_Sword: Normal Blade of Methos_  
_Fire Ring: summon the powers of fire_

Current Halloween Equipments of Willow  
_X-Men gloves: triggering Jubilee's X-gene._  
_Wind Ring: summon the powers of wi_

_nd_  
_Fire Ring: summon the powers of fire_  
_Ramuh magicite: summon and learn the powers of lightning _

Current Halloween Equipments of Xander  
_X-Men gloves: triggering Wolverine's genes_  
_Materia: 1) Yellow Materia – MORPH – ability to morph user or objects into any object_  
_Heart Ring: Empathy, Telepathy_

Current Halloween Equipments of Giles  
_Materia: 1) Green Materia – ICE – ability to cast the ICE spell_  
_ 2) Green Materia – Lightning – ability to cast the Lightning spell_  
_ 3) Green Materia – Barrier – ability to cast the Barrier spell_  
_Ifrit magicite: summon and learn the powers of fire _

Current Halloween Equipments of Andrew  
_X-Men gloves: triggering Forge's genes_  
_Unicorn magicite: summon and learn the powers of healing _

Current Halloween Equipments of Jonathan  
_X-Men gloves: triggering Gambit's genes_  
_Water Ring: summon the powers of water_

7 Spaceships  
_1. World Devastator (from Star Wars series) _.com/wiki/World_Devastator  
_2. Andromeda Ascendant (from Andromeda TV Series)_  
_3. Archangel class mobile assault ship (from Gundam anime/manga series)_  
_4. Star Ocean Colony ship (from Star Ocean game series)_  
_5. Dämmerung (from Xenosaga game series)_  
_6. Celsius (from Final Fantasy X-2 game series)_  
_7. Kryptonite vessel (from Smallville)_

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**Author's Notes:** I know I told some of you guys that I would be using spaceships from Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, but after much thought, I decided not to. Mainly due to the fact that I don't know those two fandoms quite well. As you all might have guessed, my exposure to media mostly centers around games, anime and a few TV series.

Thanks to _Ahdamit_ for giving me the idea to let the Scoobies know about their future in some form of ways ^_^ I do think the story has taken an interesting turn of events hadn't it? Also thanks to all of you for your input!

I'll be rushing my assignments so this chapter is to tide you guys for the next few weeks. =D Cheers!

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_  
__Extra Notes:_

_* Gaia is an OC spaceship, she's just there for the purpose for me to introduce the technologies from Star Ocean 3. She wouldn't be taking a major part of the story. However several of the technologies such as replicator and teleportors are useful in the story._

_* For those familiar with Star Wars verse, Luke Skywalker actually managed to get the code needed to shut down the World Devastators, the reason why the World Devastator that was copied in the Halloween dimension was in shut down phase._

_* Since you see the Archangel appearing, that means yes… Sometime in the future of the story there will be gundams._


	7. Chapter 7

**7. Chapter Seven: Beginning of the End ****½**

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**Summary: **One Halloween Night changed everything for Xander. Agreeing to a contract with the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon for power, he unknowingly unleashed great evils to the world... changing everything for the Scooby Gang. Buffy / Naruto / Andromeda / Star Wars / Multiple Crossovers

**Crossover: **Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any characters, objects or plots from

Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, Andromeda TV series, Star Wars, Stargate SG-1 TV series, Casper the friendly ghost, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Ghostbusters, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VI (Final Fantasy III in North America), X-Men, Primeval TV series, Final Fantasy X-2, Smallville TV series, Star Ocean Video Game series, Gundam Manga and Anime series, Xenosaga Video Game series, Naruto Manga and Anime series

**Book Title: **Master of the Forbidden Seals

**Author: **Wraithrune

**Beta: **Obsidius

**Story Arc: **Invasion of Dark Willow

**Side Arc: **Glory's Arrival

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**Chapter Seven: Beginning of the End 1/2**

_"Kyubi carried on to aid the Intergalactic Watcher's Council even after the death of Grand Seal Master Alexander Lavelle Harris. When the Queen Slayer Buffy Summers and her husband were killed in the Trovianoe revolution, Grand Seal Mistress Dawn Summers unleashed her wrath against the three planets under Trovianoe rule, sending them to ice age. Surprisingly, few lives were lost in the great magical storm. Only the combined powers of the Kyubi, Grand Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker and Grand Mistress of the Rose Order, Willow Rosenberg were able to halt her powers long enough for them to talk sense into her. That day was when all of galaxies and most members of the Watcher's Council, realized the full might of the first Grandmasters and mistresses of the Watcher's Council." _

_~ Legends of the Intergalactic Watcher's Council _

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_**Reality 701 **__, ruins of Sunnydale 0900hr The Original Buffy Timeline _

Willow Rosenberg, notably one of the most powerful witches on Earth, floated above the massive lake that used to be her hometown of Sunnydale. After they had closed the Hellmouth during the epic battle against the First, and sinking Sunnydale into a giant crater, the Scoobys and the new Watcher's Council had pretty much left this place alone. In the mystical sense, Lake Sunnydale as it was now known to the world was magically null. There were no traces of any dark energies that would attract any creatures of darkness.

Everyone had thought that the Sunnydale episode of their life was finally over, until Dawn, who was still stuck in her giant form, had started having recurring dreams of something bad happening in the ruins of Sunnydale. If Buffy or any of the many newly called Slayers started having prophetic dreams, it would have been all in a days' work for the Council. But when it was Dawn who has no history of precognition, there are two options, either Dawn had been having a series of very bad dreams or those dreams are linked to the fact that she was the Key.

Though Dawn was in all sense a normal human now, she had massive untapped reserves of magical energies, and there might still be essences of the Key lingering in her. Which was why Willow was hovering over Lake Sunnydale now, seeking for any signs of abnormal mystical disturbance.

Willow stretched out her magical senses, covering the whole lake and then paused.

Dawn was right, there was something in the lake, among the ruins of Sunnydale.

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_**Reality 907 **__, bastion of the dark goddess Willow Rosenberg, 1600hr The Dark Willow Timeline _

In this new world, she was God. She had destroyed the old Earth by calling upon the dark energies of the world, to end the suffering of all living creatures. She had snuffed out the lives of her closest friends, Buffy Summers, Alexander Lavelle Harris, and many more. The only creature she had left alive from the old World was Dawn Summers who was the Key. She had kept her chained and trapped under the binding spells of the darkest magic, feeding off the living renewable energies of the Key, and she had grown in power.

Willow was a Goddess, the goddess of the new world, and she had crafted her own race of dark creatures with her growing powers, to create a world of no feelings, a world with no sufferings, a world with no pain.

There had been something nudging at her senses for the past few days, over the area where Sunnydale should have been in the old Earth.

Willow, the dark Goddess frowned and then smiled.

A challenge, she hadn't had that for a long time…

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_**Reality 1002 **__, current reality, at Xander's Home, 0400hr The Master of the Forbidden Seal Timeline _

What Rommie had shown them was a horrifying revelation. Even now hours after Rommie had sent them home to read through what she had given them, Xander's mind was still reeling from the fact that in his hands contained what could be kindly termed as 'a book of prophecies' of what would happen to all of them for the next few years. Or rather, what _could _happen to them.

The first real change he had noticed was during the Halloween night a few weeks back. In the graphic novels, he had worn a soldier's costume, and for the next five years with Buffy and Willow , he had remained the ordinary guy among a group of super powered girls instead of being skillful in the Sealing arts as he now was. He had dated Cordelia, and then fell in love with an ex-vengence demon named Anya. He had been there when Buffy died again and he was there to stop Willow when she tried to destroy the world.

Then there was Angel, whom he did not really trust. His distrust of vampires began from the day Jesse had turned into one, and he never believed that Deadboy would remain good for long. But Angel's deeds in the future of the graphic novels spoke for themselves. Angel had become one of the champions and had saved the world several times. Xander was forced to concede that perhaps Deadboy wasn't so bad after all.

He was just stunned by all the secrets that the future would bring, the fact that Dawn was not real was a hard one to swallow, and Willow falling in love with a girl…

_"All these might or might not happen in your current timeline." _Kyubi reminded him in his mind. _"Because of the path you took during Halloween night, everything has already begun to change." _

"Yes like the fact that we weren't supposed to know Andrew and Jonathan so soon." Xander said in distress looking at the graphic novels. "And is what the graphic novels shown true? Is Dawn really… this Key?"

_"Actually Xander, she might very well be. I felt a powerful energy signature washing over me a few weeks ago, shortly after Halloween night." _Kyubi said hesitantly. _"Remember how I said I couldn't remember Buffy had a sister? I suspect that maybe due to the chaos energies released during that night, she might had been sent to Buffy for protection earlier than was foretold in these graphic novels." _

"We really messed up during Halloween night didn't we?" Xander asked wiping his face with his hand wearily. "And look at this, even the Mayor of Sunnydale is a major big bad who was supposed to eat us during graduation a year from now… And there's even a secret government project right in old Sunnydale."

_"It's a bit hard to take in right now, but first we need to ascertain if those events foretold in the graphic novels are real in your own world." _Kyubi suggested wisely. _"They might be describing some other alternate realities for all we know." _

"Ascertain if they are real…" Xander mused. "The easiest way is to find out if Angel is really cursed with his soul and if Miss Calendar is a Romany in charge of making sure he suffers. If that's real… God, I wonder how Buffy is taking the news that Angel will become Angelus the moment he found happiness."

_"She's a tough girl, I am sure she could handle it." _Kyubi said. _"But how are you taking everything?" _

"Well I am trying very hard not to freak out." Xander said with a chuckle. "I actually kissed Cordelia Chase and dated her before I was dumped. Add to that, I make out with Willow who was my childhood friend… Then I have sex with the third slayer that was called, this Faith person, and then Anya…"

_"You do have an active love life in the graphic novels even though you remained one of the none super powered human throughout the seven years." _Kyubi said in deep thoughts. _"But yet through out the graphic novels, you remained the heart and soul of the group. It's strange how much you differ from the graphic novels yet remained the same." _

"Honestly, I am getting headache just thinking about that. How about we concentrate on the major big bads that we're might be fighting against?" Xander said trying to change the subject. "Now this Hell God, Glory creature that's after Dawn, you don't suppose she'll come to Sunnydale early like what happened with Dawn do you?"

_"If Dawn is the Key and she is sent to all of you this early, than most probably that this Hell God is already on her way." _Kyubi reasoned.

Xander groaned, he was about to comment when the phone rang. Quickly getting up, he lunged for the phone, it would be bad if his parents were woken from their sleep upstairs.

"Hello?" Xander asked into the speaker.

_"Xander?" _Willow 's voice came softly through the speaker. _"I know it's late… but can you come to my place now? I… I don't know what I should do…" _

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_at Giles' Home, 0415hr _

Giles paged through the graphic novels, his heart heavy and weary. It was hard not to believe the graphic novels as prophecies for the future, especially with all the little bits of details about himself that was revealed in the graphic novels. There was the matter of the council, to think that in the future they had become a body that acted only in their own self interest, using the Slayers as pawns under their control. Throughout the graphic novels, the council had placed its principles and perceived goals ahead of the well-being of the Slayer, even going so far as to strip him of his Watcher's title when he went to help Buffy when the Cruciamentum trials went wrong.

The Cruciamentum was a trial that the council assigned to any Slayer that had lived long enough to reach their eighteenth birthday. The Slayer's powers were stripped away and the Slayer in question had to fight against a vampire alone to prove her worth. It was a cruel trial that only those in the council knew about, which was one reason why Giles believed that parts of the graphic novels actually foretold the future.

As he read through everything gaining a deeper understanding of the actions of the Watcher's Council, he wondered if he did the right thing by reporting about Rommie and Xander's new abilities to the council. Giles turned back grimly to the graphic novels, and then there was the currently more important problem regarding Angel. If what the graphic novels showed was true, Jenny was a Romany in charge of prolonging Angel's suffering, a task which ultimately led to her death. Angel had killed her before kidnapping him and torturing him as well. Only the timely rescue of Buffy had saved him.

There was only one way to find out if what the graphic novels said was true. He packed up the graphic novels, left his house and got into his car. The drive of fifteen minutes to Jenny Calendar's house was filled with the dread that he would soon know if everything foretold in the graphic novels was true.

He stopped his car outside the small suburb house, got out with the bundle of graphic novels in his arms and knocked on the door. There was no response so he rang the bell.

After a few minutes, there were sounds of someone walking towards the door. Then it opened, with Jenny Calendar looking out crossly at Giles.

"Giles? What happened? It's the middle of the night! Did Buffy and the others get into some trouble again?" Jenny asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

"I just need to show you something. Janna of the Kalderash Clan." Giles said gravely.

He saw Jenny's eyes widened in shock as she stared at him.

"I…" Jenny faltered.

Giles closed his eyes wearily. "Let me in Jenny, there's stuff I need to show you."

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_at Buffy's Home, 0435hr _

Buffy closed her eyes as she leaned against the wall. She was sitting on her bed, the graphic novels strewn across her bed. Her mind was a mess of confusion, Angel's curse, how the evil Angelus had killed Miss Calendar who was actually a Romany sent to watch over Angel. How that there was already another Slayer being called, and that with her death, a new Slayer called Faith would come to Sunnydale and in time turn against them.

Buffy had watched as her attitude towards her friends, especially Xander went down hill in the third year they were together. She saw how pushing Xander out of the group was instead causing him to become hurt. She also saw the flaws in her own personality as the graphic novel version of her went about dealing with Xander and Willow in their everyday life. Yet, throughout the graphic novels, Xander and Willow stuck by her, a constant support in her slaying. For the first time, Buffy realized she's never going to be alone in the fight against the demons.

As Buffy read on, she had found to her horror that Dawn wasn't real. That her little sister was something called a Key. Buffy refused to believe that, Dawn was her sister! She had all those memories of childhood spent with her. Moreover in this world, Dawn was already here before the fifth year that was described in the graphic novels. Buffy felt a headache throbbing in her head as she closed her eyes to process what she had seen. She prayed that the fact Dawn was created was not true in this world. After all in the graphic novels, Xander had picked a soldier costume instead of a ninja costume, and that's when everything in the graphic novels diverged. Maybe what was shown in the graphic novels was about some other Buffy in some weird alternate reality. Buffy hope that's what it is, the truth was just too horrible to contemplate.

A tear trickled out of her eyes as she remembered the scene where her mother had died. Buffy had looked on in shock as she sacrificed herself at the end of Season Five to save Dawn and the rest of the world. Willow who had become a powerful witch by then had raised her from the dead. Just the thought of what Willow had done put a shiver down her spine. She had started a violent relationship with Spike which she read on with much horror and shame, then came the battle with the First…

After reading the next batch of graphic novels which portrayed Angel's future, her heart had clenched painfully at all his romantic interests, Cordelia among them. Angel's future was as dark as hers had being in the graphic novels. Angel and his group went up against various demons, most predominately the Wolfram & Hart firm in LA, which ultimately led to most of the group being killed. Wild, scattered thoughts ran through her brain as Buffy wondered what she should do with all these things she knew now.

Buffy opened her eyes, coming to a decision. She gathered the graphic novels into one pile and put them into her handbag. Grabbing her sword, she slipped out of the window. She's going to find Angel.

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_at Willow 's Home, 0440hr _

Willow cried silently as she flipped through the graphic novels numbly. Now that she had time to go though the graphic novels on her own, she was in a state of shock at what she would become in the future. She had fallen in love with a musician named Oz, kissed Xander which had caused him and Cordelia to break up, become a powerful witch who then fell in love with a girl named Tara Maclay. Before she could even get over the fact that she had became a lesbian in the future, she found out that Dawn wasn't real, Buffy had died to save the world, and somehow, she had managed to revive Buffy with powerful dark magic.

Willow looked on in fear as her future self spiral down a dark path of anger, vengeance and magical addiction. When Tara was killed, she turned to dark magic for vengeance and nearly destroyed the world. The only one who was able to stop her was Xander, who had told her he would always be by her side no matter how much she hurt him.

Then the last season, when they go up against a powerful entity known as 'The First', Willow had used her powers to activate all of the slayers in the world. Willow sat there in the darkness, her mind reeling from all she had read. All those powers are her's to wield, but it's also easy to grow addicted to them as she had seen her future self did.

Willow shuddered, she would never… must never become a user of dark magic in the future, never ever…

Then there was the surprise, where Angel and Cordelia were one of the few that got together to protect LA. Cordelia gradually changed in the graphic novels, even saving the world several times. It gave Willow greater insight into the mind of one of her childhood nemesis, and it made her realized that people do change. Willow thought back with guilt the many times she had bad mouthed Cordelia, and also all the times in the future when she had hurt Xander. Maybe there's a way for her to address her wrongs to them, by bringing them together…

A soft knock on her door startled her out of her thoughts. Willow quickly got up, she had called Xander a while back after she had found out she nearly became one of the bad guys. She needed her best friend's support right now, especially now that she knew for a fact that he would always stand by her through thick and thin, even though they would never be romantically together.

Walking out of her room, she made her way to the front door. The house was eerily silent. Her parents were seldom home and she had gotten used to taking care of herself in her own house.

"Xander!" Willow cried in relief as she opened the door, rushing towards him with a sob.

" Willow." Xander said returning the hug, looking sadly at her. "I …"

"I am sorry for all those time I have hurt you, now or in the future…" Willow said brokenly.

"I know Willow, I know." Xander said stroking her hair. He gave a weary sigh, then remarked cheekily. "You know, the girl on girl action _is _pretty hot."

Willow drew back in shock and stared at Xander in outrage.

"Oh shut up you!" Willow said slapping his arm. Then she groaned. "I wonder how I am going to face everyone in the library later. I have so many dark secrets in the graphic novels."

"At least you're not a demon magnet." Xander said rolling his eyes. He looked at his best friend. "So now that you know your possible future, what are you going to do about it?"

"I…" Willow swallowed and looked at Xander. "I think I want to give up my magic."

Xander blinked and looked seriously at her.

"Are you ok with that Willow? Running away from who you could become just because of a single mistake you might make in the future?" Xander asked, his eyes seeming to look into her soul. "What about all those powerful enemies whom we might need your powers against? Are you going to just stand aside, afraid to use your powers because of what you might become? That's not living to your true potential Willow ."

"I know, it's just I am scared that if I really go evil in the future, no one might be there to stop me." Willow said softly, looking down.

Xander smiled at her, lifting up her chin. "If and when you ever go evil, I'll be there beside you, to show you the right path. Now and forever."

Willow gave him a watery look before sniffing. There was a moment of silence as Xander wait for Willow to compose herself.

"You know Xander, I am going to kick you out of our club." Willow suddenly said with a wicked gleam in her eyes.

"Huh?" Xander asked looking at his best friend mystified.

"You are now no longer a member of the 'Hate Cordelia' club. You actually dated her of all people." Willow continued with a wicked grin as Xander flushed. "What are you going to tell her now?"

"Do we really have to tell her anything?" Xander whined. "We are not really that close to her in this current time."

"We should. I think she deserve to know what she might become. She's one of the good guys in the future." Willow said giving him a serious look. "Cordelia's a totally different person in the future of the graphic novels. She actually saved the world a few times."

"And she's going to kill us for disturbing her beauty sleep if we call her now." Xander said with a sigh, making his way to the phone in Willow 's living room. He paused and gave Willow a pleading glance. "Maybe we could tell her later…"

Willow rolled her eyes, closing the front door and began dragging Xander towards the phone.

"I am not going to come between you two this time. She's your future girlfriend, just treat the call as your first date. Come on, what are you waiting for?"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Higher Plane, Jesse's Garden _

"Must be hard kid, not being able to tell them what is coming." A voice said, breaking Jesse's thoughts.

Jesse blinked as he looked up from the pond where an image of Willow and Xander lay on top of the water. He saw Whistler, one of the Balance demon who was assigned to Angel and Buffy, shimmering into view beside him.

"Whistler, what are you doing here?" Jesse asked with a sigh. Ever since he was called into service by the higher powers, Whistler had taken it on himself to become a mentor for him.

"Just making sure you're not going to do anything stupid." Whistler said looking seriously at him. "Don't think I don't know what you've been doing behind the higher powers' back. There's a very good chance that _they _know as well, just that they are willing to overlook your actions between Rupert Giles and the Watcher's Council. But the new plans of the Powers that Be must not be revealed to the champions under no circumstances."

"I know." Jesse said looking away. "I didn't tell Xander anything except that the stray chaos energies can cause temporal distortions."

"Good, the plan relied heavily on the continued presence of the chaos imbued Halloween costumes that the kid is bringing out into this world." Whistler said with a look of distaste in his eyes. "A gathering of a large amount of chaos created costumes will disrupt this reality enough for the two Willows of the current neighboring realities to cross over, setting in motion the plans of the Powers that Be."

Jesse looked away bitterly. "And I live only for the plans of the higher powers. Don't worry Whistler, I'll carry out my part in their grand scheme. Xander and his group will be kept in the dark until the end. Because they are the bait and the alternate Scooby gang are the only ones capable of stopping Dark Willow."

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_at High School Library, 0600hr _

The library was silent. Part of the reason was that it was still early morning, another reason was that those that had arrived were absorbed in their own thoughts. The only sounds were from the mini-spaceship Leia as she sat in a corner munching on waste paper. According to Xander and Willow, Leia was supposed to break down any materials into raw resources to upgrade herself. The android Rommie was in a corner fiddling with some equipment.

Cordelia still felt the lingering sense of awe that had come upon her when Xander and Willow had told her of everything that had happened during Halloween night. When they had called her to the library, Cordelia had not expected to hear about how Xander had made a deal with a nine-tailed fox demon and the subsequent disaster he had unleashed to the universe, along with the powers he had gained. She had listened in disbelief as they pointed to Rommie who was in the library, as one of the few characters that had turned real due to Halloween magic.

Xander and Willow had then told her of how they had gotten Rommie to agree to help them build _starships _of all things. But the most incredible and impossible of all things had been the stacks of graphic novels that Xander had then passed to her which supposedly foretold their possible futures, apart from a few minor differences.

Rommie, Xander and Willow had left her alone with the graphic novels then, which Cordelia had at first flipped through with disinterest, then with more intensity and morbid fascination as she looked at her actions from the view of a third person. She had looked on with a heavy heart as she saw how Jesse had made several attempts to be friendly with her because he liked her, but how she had brushed him off uncaring of his feelings.

When she saw in the graphic novel Xander and Willow's conversation about how they had a 'Hate the Cordelia' club, Cordelia couldn't help but felt a hint of hurt. The most glaring to her was in the first part of the graphic novels were when she had made snide and blunt remarks about others and the responses they had made behind her back. Cordelia had observed her graphic novel self in shock as she saw her dating Xander, and then the subsequent breakup.

Her future life had taken a turn for the worse as her family lost their fortunes and she went to seek a new beginning in LA, later becoming part of Angel's group as they battled demons in the city of angels. She had seen the change in her graphic novel self, from a notably shallow character to… a hero. Something she had never imagined herself to be, and it felt good.

As she browsed through the graphic novels, she was aware of more people arriving but she ignored them as she tried to finish reading through the stack to find out what is her end. Her concentration was broken as a loud voice broke through the morning silence.

"You killed me!"

Cordelia snapped her head up from the graphic novels to be treated to an unusual sight of Jonathan trying to strangle another boy she did not recognize, most probably the Andrew boy Xander had told her they had taken into their group.

Xander and Willow were beside the two new members of the group in an instant, Xander trying to pry Jonathan's hands from Andrew's neck while Willow was dragging Andrew to safety.

"Really children!" Giles said aghast near the door to his office. Ms Calendar was beside him, a cup of coffee each in their hands. "Try to remain civil to one another."

Cordelia blinked, she had not seen the two walk in. She turned her head to the weapons' cage where Buffy was huddled against Angel, both looking quite grim. Apparently most of the group had arrived while she was trying to know more of her fate.

"He killed me!" Jonathan accused angrily, pointing at Andrew while struggling in Xander's arms.

"He didn't kill you." Rommie spoke up, putting down her tools as she made her way to Jonathon and Andrew. "What happen in the future can be changed."

"Well yeah but…" Jonathan sounded disgruntled as he began speaking, but Cordelia cut him off.

"Would you mind taking your arguments outside?" Cordelia snapped. "I am trying to read my future here!"

There was silence as everyone turned to look at her. The silence was broken as Xander gave a cough, giving Willow a look. Apparently Willow knew what Xander wanted because she turned to nudged Andrew and whispered in his ears. Andrew looked meekly at Willow before turning to face Jonathon.

"I am sorry, I didn't mean to kill you." Andrew spoke up, looking nervously behind Willow at Jonathan.

"There see, Andrew's sorry so let's just let it go ok?" Xander said shaking Jonathan slightly. "We'll just have to make sure he didn't regress in the future."

Cordelia saw Jonathan scowled at Andrew before turning his back to him. There were sounds of footsteps as Giles walked to the center of the library looking at everyone.

"Alright, let's calm down everybody." Giles said clearing his throat. "I am sure all of you know why we are meeting here, does anyone need me to explain what happened to Xander during Halloween night which leads to our current predicament?"

"You mean how loser boy dressed as some ninja, and set lose a whole lot of trouble in the galaxies? Yeah, Xander explained to me about it, if anyone could screw up the universe in just one night, it would be him." Cordelia said affecting disinterest and scorn, hiding that fact that her emotions were in turmoil underneath.

"Hey!" Xander called out half heartedly from where he was keeping a watch on Jonathan. "It was an accident."

"My point exactly!" Cordelia turned to him rolling her eyes. "And I am still getting over the fact that I dated you in the graphic novels."

"But the important thing is, are those things happening in the graphic novels true?" Buffy asked from beside Angel. "I just can't believe Dawn is created from magic and Angel…"

Cordelia saw Giles sparing Ms Calendar a look. Ms Calendar closed her eyes and nod at him before Giles turned to face Buffy.

"Regarding that Buffy, Jenny has confirmed that the gypsy curse cast on Angel had a clause." Giles said looking at his slayer wearily.

"So if I ever had a moment of happiness, I will lose my soul?" Angel asked a bit bitterly. "I've read about what had happened to me in the graphic novels."

"That means Ms Calendar is actually from the Kalderash Clan doesn't it?" Xander asked seeking confirmation.

"Yes… I am from the clan that originally cursed Angelus." Ms Calendar affirmed softly.

Cordelia saw Ms Calendar turning to look at Buffy, but the slayer quickly looked away from the computer teacher. _Major badness… _Cordelia thought inwardly. She had learnt to read people pretty well from trying to navigate the treacherous tide of high school politics, and her instincts were telling her that a lot of people were walking on eggshells today.

"That probably proved that whatever happened in the graphic novels will probably happen to us in the future." Willow said a bit subdued.

"But Dawn is my sister!" Buffy insisted fiercely. "I had all those memories of her. And she's already with me now instead of a few years later like what happened in the graphic novels!"

"Actually Buffy, the fox told me he detected a strange energy surge after Halloween night." Xander said looking apologetically at her. "We think because of what happened during Halloween, she might be sent to us earlier. There are some ways to confirm Dawn's identity but either way, we might need to prepare ourselves for the arrival of an angry Hell Goddess."

"She's my sister." Buffy said brokenly as she leaned against Angel.

"And she's still your sister or did what's left of your common sense desert you?" Cordelia said making a deliberate jibe at the Slayer. She never could stand self pitying people. "Enough of the melodrama already! From what the graphic novels said, she's created from a part of you, that's as close to being a sibling as it can get."

Buffy quickly straightened herself at Cordelia's words, giving Cordelia a death glare before snapping out of her brief bout of depression. "You're right, Dawn _**is **_my sister, and that Glory creature is going to get her over my dead body."

"I think the most important thing right now is to plan out what to do about those various demons that are going to be coming after all of you." Rommie reasoned, looking at them seriously. "Especially since that some of them might arrive earlier than expected. Looking through the graphic novels, I now understand the severity should the Hellmouth in Sunnydale be opened. We will need a team here in Sunnydale even after we have finished our plans of creating a starship to travel to other planets."

"You're right." Giles said with a sigh. "But we could worry about that later, at the moment we need to plan out what we are going to do about the incoming danger. Now that we know about Angel's curse, we can prevent him from becoming Angelus, but that still left us with the trouble of Mayor Wilkins, the government agency and Glory who might be coming after Dawn earlier than expected."

"Mayor Wilkins is a skilled dark sorcerer with unknown numbers of demons under his paycheck, we need to be careful of him." Xander pointed out.

"That's why we need some way to keep track of his whereabouts, and kill him before his ascension, as well as getting first hand information on the big bads who are coming to Sunnydale." Xander said looking at Rommie and Andrew. "Are there any high tech gadgets that the two of you could build to allow us to do all those things?"

"Actually I might have something better." Rommie spoke up with a gleam in her eyes. "Leia, would you mind stopping your upgrade for a while and come here?"

Everyone watched as the mini-spaceship who was munching on a pile of waste paper flew towards them.

"Now as most of you know, Leia is a spaceship factory, even though right now she's too small to produce spaceships that could hold us." Rommie began, laying a hand on the floating mini-spaceship in front of her. "But we are in a unique position currently because of her small size. No technologies could produce a spaceship factory that's this small, which was why I didn't think of this idea in the first place. Leia could produce ships as small as an eraser, now imagine what we could use ships that are this small for."

Xander stared blankly at her. "Erm we could sell them as Sunnydale souvenirs?"

"No!" Andrew spoke up excitedly, as he realized what Rommie's plans were. "We can use them as spies!"

"Correct." Rommie said with a smile. "Just as we're using the deep space sensors of the mini-starships to keep track of the surroundings of the library, we can ask Leia to build modified versions of starships that are able to capture audio and video input of their surroundings."

"Not to burst your bubble Rommie, but I think Mayor Wilkins and the rest of the Sunnydale population might notice if small starships started flying around Sunnydale." Giles said pointing out the obvious flaw in the current plan.

"Normally that would be the case, but we have cloaking technologies which we could use to hide the ships." Rommie explained to everyone. "Admittedly, my universe could never really build a workable starship cloak, and the cloaking technologies that Leia possessed from the star wars universe requires resources we are unable to get. But Gaia who is from the Star Ocean 3 universe, possesses working starship cloaking technologies. If we pass the plans to Leia, she will be able to mass produce mini-starships with cloaks that we could send out as spies."

"How long would that take?" Xander asked.

"Within a day or two, Leia could produce a fleet of modified starships that can specialize in video and audio capturing." Rommie said, continuing. "With all your permission, I think we should halt the plans for Leia to upgrade first. A prudent plan will be for her to produce another World Devastator after she had completed producing the first fleet of modified starships."

"The second World Devastator would allow us to produce more mini-spaceships in the future without halting Leia's upgrading time." Andrew said understanding Rommie's logic.

"That's correct." Rommie said then waved to another mini-starship that had settled itself on a nearby shelf. "But in the meantime, I think we should send Gaia to tail this Mayor Wilkins. She's the only one out of the four mini-starships who have a workable cloaking device."

"Yes perhaps that would be the best." Giles agreed. He paused at the sound of the morning bells ringing outside. "Unfortunately, I believe we have to save our discussion to after school. All of you need to go for your morning classes."

"Math is first period." Xander said with a groan as they began getting their bags and filing out of the library.

"If you don't mind Angel, I think the adults should have their own meetings while the children are away." Giles called out as Angel began to make a move as well.

"Hey!" Xander and Buffy protested indignantly. Cordelia rolled her eyes at their combined childishness.

"By the way Xander, Andromeda has finished her cleaning." Rommie added before the teenagers went out of the library doors. "I think we can continue our discussions _there _in the afternoon."

"Alright!" Xander called back, waving cheerfully at the android before following the others out.

"What's that about?" Willow asked as they trudged out of the library with Xander in decidedly better spirits.

Xander gave them a mysterious grin. "You'll all know after school."

"Oh drop the mystery act." Cordelia said cutting in front of them, the bundles of graphic novels in her arms. "We're going to be late for class."

Cordelia blinked as a short figure suddenly strode up to them, blocking her path.

"Ah! Ms Chase and… the delinquents." Principal Synder paused for a moment as if wondering why Cordelia was together with the group of misfits behind her. Then he turned and directed a look of scorn at Xander and Buffy before proceeding to stuff sheets of papers in each of their hands. "Today is the start of Career week and I expect all of you to fill out these forms. Failure to do so will be one week's detention for all of you."

"What!" Buffy asked in a shrill voice.

"I didn't remember that happening to me in the graphic novels." Cordelia complained, leveling a glare at Buffy and Xander.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at School, 1400hr _

"This is like a bad dream." Buffy said gloomily as the group of them huddled near the studies table after their classes. "I've already seen this part of my life happening. I am going to end up with law enforcement and environmental design in my job description."

"And I am going to be approached by some secret cooperate software company… where I'll meet Oz for the first time!" Willow spoke up in a sudden rush. She perked up and looked down at her career questionnaire with renewed enthusiasm and gave a moan. "What if I can't answer the questions the same as I did in the graphic novels, I'll probably never get the chance to meet him again!"

"Are you sure that's what you wanted?" Cordelia asked nonchalantly. She was twirling her pen as she stared disinterestedly at the questionnaires. "You did have a girlfriend later on."

Willow flushed a deep red, giving Cordelia a glare before speaking hotly. "What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be with your Cordeliates? I am really starting to regret asking Xander to call you in my moment of weakness."

"Look I have nothing against your sexual orientation in the future." Cordelia said frankly, giving a shrug. "But I think you better put some thoughts about whether you still wanted to start the relationship with Oz. It wouldn't be fair to him if you dump him for Tara a few years down the road."

Buffy looked embarrassed to be hearing this conversation about her best friend and quickly found something to occupy herself with. Jonathan and Andrew in the meantime were watching Cordelia and Willow wide-eyed, while Xander who was sitting beside Willow gave a nervous twitch at the amount of embarrassment hovering over the table.

"Cordelia, I don't think this is the best place to talk about this." Xander said trying to spare Willow from Cordelia's bluntness. Willow had flushed a brilliant red by now and looked like she was going to have a stroke.

"I was just trying to be nice since she was the only one who had thought to inform me of what happen." Cordelia said with a shrug looking at Xander. "Anyway, don't even think that I am hooking up with you again. Not after how you've cheated on me in the future."

"And there goes our weird conversation of the day." Buffy said rolling her eyes uncomfortably, giving a weary sigh. She turned her attention to her career day questionnaires. "I don't suppose if I pick answers I wouldn't normally choose that I'll get some career description other than law enforcement?"

"It's worth a try." Jonathan offered helpfully as he scribbled diligently on his own forms.

"Not that I'll be working in any field other than slaying monsters in the future." Buffy grumbled as she started circling answers at random. "Long working hours and the pay sucks."

"Well I can't do anything about the working hours, but maybe I could help with the pay." Xander said picking up his bag and taking out five bulging envelopes. "I've been meaning to pass all of you these."

Buffy accepted the envelope Xander gave her as he began to distribute the rest to the others. Opening it, her eyes widened at what she saw. A thick stack of fifty dollars notes stared back at her.

"Xander! Where did you get so much money?" Buffy hissed, quickly closing the envelope as the others began making similar cries of exclamations.

"Remember how I told you I could turn anything into gold with the morph materia?" Xander asked with a grin. "I got Giles to help me sell away some of the gold pieces. From now on, I will be paying all of us monthly salaries. The lot of you deserve to get something for helping in the slaying, you especially Buffy."

"But…" Buffy flattered, seemingly at lose for words.

"Oh just accept it." Cordelia said pocketing the envelope before turning to Xander. "There's like three thousand dollars inside, it will make nice pocket change… Although Xander, not that I don't appreciate it, but I hadn't really done anything to help out recently."

"Well like it or not, you're a permanent member of the group now." Xander said seriously looking back at the cheerleader. "I expect you to pull your weight in helping with the slayage as well."

"Whatever." Cordelia answered with a shrug. "I better start working on my dad to pay his taxes before he cost us our whole house."

"Speaking of houses, there's somewhere I need to take you guys to after school." Xander said with a grin as he waggled his eyebrows at them. "It's a surprise."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_Kalderash Clan _

"Elder! Are you alright elder?" Enyos asked worried as he entered the room to found the clan elder collapsed on the mats.

The aged wrinkled face of the elder gazed unseeingly at him with her blind eyes before she gave a harsh whisper.

"The dark tides have come but the lights shined more brightly. One of them is the cursed soul." The elder rasped out, causing a chill to travel down Enyos's spine. To the clan, the cursed soul was another name they called Angelus by, the most feared vampire to the Kalderash Clan. "Times are changing and the cursed with it. Call the young one watching him. Warn her, tell her to stay on the good side of the fox. For the sake of the clan."

"What do you mean?" Enyos asked looking at the elder with a bit of misgiving.

"The fox spirit and the young warriors are not to be tangled with. The cursed soul is now their charge and under their protections." The clan elder said painfully. "It is no longer the duties of clan Kalderash to watch over Angelus. I need you to prepare something for me, we need to gain the favor of this new power, or risk being snuffed out under their grasp."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Andromeda Inc. (Formerly the old Sunnydale airstrip), 1700hr _

"You bought an airstrip!" Andrew and Jonathan exclaimed as they paused outside the gates with a small sign that said 'Andromeda Inc.'. Willow, Buffy and Cordelia were looking pass the gates speechless as Xander opened the gates for them. He waved at the camera attached to the roof of the guard house as it turned to follow their movements.

"This whole property must have cost a lot." Cordelia said accusingly. "How much gold did you make?"

"Let's just say a lot of it. Enough to buy this land space, pay for upgrades, your monthly allowances and still lots to spare." Xander said with a grin. "Of course, the funds are all in the company that Giles had set up for us, the Andromeda Inc."

"That's really cool Xander." Andrew grinned. Buffy and Cordelia rolled their eyes behind the boys' back.

Xander led them along the run track of the airstrip that was lime washed and gleam a stark white in the sunlight. They walked towards the rows of hangars in the distance, where a small air control tower was positioned at the end. As they neared, they started hearing loud sounds of activity going on from within.

Xander paused in front of the first hangar and grinned. "Welcome to our new HQ guys."

Willow looked into the first open hangar and gasped together with the others, surprise crossing their faces. Inside the large hangar were several silver droids moving around, shifting and carrying furniture from boxes and placing them around the hangar. One corner of the hangar was already furnished into what looked like a meeting area with a large table and several chairs around it. On the other side were rows of computers, and there was even an area that looked like the pantry.

"It's like our own secret hideout and you've already created the droids!" Jonathan breathed looking around him with undisguised delight.

"Yup." Xander said with a nod. "Most of the droids are in the other hangars where Andromeda had ordered them to begin building the framework of our new 'start from scratch' starship. The rest are assigned the menial task of arranging the furniture that had just arrived."

"Oh wow! This is incredible!" Andrew cried out softly as he ran forward to examine one of the droids, with Jonathan following after him a minute later.

Xander watched their friendly bickering for a moment before giving a relieved sigh. "Those two have gotten over their little feud hadn't they?"

"Well Jonathan's a pretty kind person underneath, and Andrew should be alright since we got him before he even met that Warren guy in the graphic novels." Willow observed. "I think they will do the right thing now that they know what will happen in the future."

"Hopefully." Cordelia said with a sniff. "I don't want to wake up and be stabbed to death by them one day. Alright, so what do we do now that we have admired this new place?"

"I will go find Rommie, she's probably in one of the hangars over seeing the rest of the droids." Xander said looking at the girls. "After that we'll wait for Giles and Ms Calendar to arrive."

Buffy's eyes cooled, and she turned away disinterestedly. "Alright then, I will go and explore this place."

"Wow, a bit icy isn't she?" Cordelia said looking at Buffy's back as she walked out of the hangar.

"I am beginning to wonder if knowing the future is such a good thing." Willow spoke up softly. "There's so much awkwardness going on, so many secrets that are revealed."

"I second that." Cordelia spoke up shaking her head. "I am still trying to scrub my eyes from the mental imagery of Buffy and Angel lying in bed together."

"I wasn't talking about that!" Willow growled losing her temper. "Would you mind being a bit tactful? Buffy might be a little sensitive right now."

"And you aren't?" Cordelia asked arching her eyebrow at Willow . "Look I've better things to do then to become your target practice, I am going to check out that fridge in the corner."

Willow closed her eyes as Cordelia walked away.

"I messed up didn't I?" Willow asked softly.

"I think everyone's a bit nervous the whole day with what we know now." Xander said wearily. "The only one who seems to be doing well is Cordelia, she had been doing her version of Cordelia nice-ness the whole day, without her usual sarcastic remarks."

"Yeah I know, by being butt blunt to everyone." Willow said tiredly. She looked at Cordelia who was opening the fridge at the other end of the hangar and sighed. "I had better go apologize hadn't I?"

"Yeah I think you better, though if it was the old Cordelia, she'll probably be giving you the cold shoulder for the rest of the week. But the Cordelia right now?" Xander asked with a shrug. "Somehow I think she might understand. I think everyone has changed, even a little, after they had read about what's going to happen to them and what they would become."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Sunnydale High school computer labs _

As the last student cleared the computer lab, Jenny began her systematic switching off of the computers as well as organizing the stacks of disks that contained the homework of her previous classes. Her shaking hands knocked one of the stacks over and Jenny cursed as she quickly bent down to restack them.

She had been a bundle of nerves the whole day, having the knowledge of a future where one was killed by Angelus could do that to a person. The additional knowledge that Angel, the souled form of Angelus had went on to become a champion of the innocents put her into conflicts with the teachings of her clan. Angel had done much good in the future if the graphic novels were to be believed, he was far from being the soulless and merciless monster that the clan elders had continually warned her of. For the first time in years, she questioned if her clan's teachings were right.

After Buffy and the others had left for class, Giles, Angel, Rommie and her had gathered to discuss much needed plans in the children's absence. She had read of what Giles would do to keep his adopted 'children' safe in the graphic novels, a trait that he had displayed as he and Rommie discussed the various plans that would be put in action to safe guard Buffy and the rest of the teenagers behind their backs. The plans were drawn up even though the children were wielding powers enough to defend themselves through the Halloween costumes given to them.

Jenny had heard from Giles of what had happened to the group since the past weeks, but she was unable to fully believe Giles' words until he had showed her the materias he possessed that allowed him to cast instant spells. Flipping through the stacks of prophetic graphic novels and subsequently seeing Rommie at the library had further cement the truth in her mind.

First and foremost, Giles had warned Angel not to be too close to Buffy this time round, in order to stave off Angelus' return. Rommie had suggested that what little she knew of Xander's unique abilities might mean that the boy might be able to come up with a way to permanently affix Angel's soul in place. It was one matter which they decided to discuss further with Xander and one which put Jenny in a hard position. If she reported the groups' plans to her clan, she would be betraying the group and most importantly Giles. But if she kept it from her clan…

Jenny gave herself a shake as she turned to close the doors to the labs, Giles would be coming to fetch her soon and she didn't want him to see what a nervous wreck she had become. Her cell phone suddenly rang and she quickly picked it up. The caller id showed her Uncle Enyos' number. Dread filled her as she wondered what her clan wanted her to do now.

"Hello?" Jenny asked querulously.

"Jenny?" Her uncle's voice called worriedly over the phone. "The clan elder had a vision and a warning to pass to you, you need to follow what I said carefully. I've sent you an email…"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Sunnydale Mayor's Office _

"What is the meaning of this?" Mayor Wilkins asked looking at Finch, pointing to the pile of papers on his table.

"Those are the paperwork regarding those that had bought the old Sunnydale air strip." Finch explained, shifting the papers, pulling one out from the pile and handing it to the Mayor. "I think you'll be very interested in who bought it."

"Rupert Giles?" Mayor Wilkins asked after reading the form with raised eyebrows. "The Council's pet? Is the Watcher's Council planning on making a move to Sunnydale? Otherwise I can't see how he would get so much money."

"Actually I doubt it." Finch said, pulling more papers under the pile. "I've checked the bank transactions of Rupert Giles, he had suddenly came into a lot of funds that were not from the Watcher's Council a few days ago. In a few short days, he had also set up a private company and transferred most of the funds into its bank accounts. The company was supposedly shared by him, Alexander Lavelle Harris and Rommie Hunt."

"Rommie Hunt, what kind of name is that? And why did the watcher open an account with one of the kids?" Mayor Wilkins asked narrowing his eyes. "If I recall, this Alexander is the weakest bunch of the lot together with the girl… what's her name? Will? Willow?"

"Willow Rosenberg." Finch provided, adding more details. "I've checked the homeland records of Rommie Hunt, she's a freelance computer specialist born in Canada , no noticeable criminal activities, no connection to the Watcher's Council. The surprising fact of the company is that Rupert Giles and Rommie Hunt owned twenty-five per cent of the company shares, while Alexander Lavelle Harris owned fifty per cent controlling shares. Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Andrew Wells and Jonathan Levinson were listed as employees of the company."

"What!" Mayor Wilkins roared, his eyes hardening. "This doesn't seem right, I need you to find out where they got so much money, and I need you to provide me with more details about this Alexander boy. The watcher might have gone independent and I need to find out who's backing his group. Watch the names of those that appeared in the company roster closely, I want to know their every movement."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Andromeda Inc. (Formerly the old Sunnydale airstrip), 1845hr _

Angel strode in the shadows of dawn, making his way to the place that Rommie had informed him of after Buffy and the rest had left for class in the morning. As he let himself through the gates of the old Sunnydale airstrip, he noted the camera attached to the roof of the guard house following his movements.

He paused, wondering where he should go next. Rommie had told him that they were meeting in some hangars of some sort. Sniffing the air, Angel picked up the familiar scent of a gathering of humans in the distance. Turning, he made his way towards the direction.

"Angel?" a voice asked in the darkness.

Angel turned to see Buffy stepping out of the shadows from behind him.

"Buffy? Why aren't you with the others?" Angel asked pausing to look at the Slayer's weary face. His heart clenched as he remembered the promise to the watcher to keep his distance from her.

"Giles and Ms Calendar just arrived." Buffy said looking down. "I just don't know what I should do about her…"

There's no need for Angel to ask which her Buffy was referring to. "Buffy, it's not really Jenny's fault you know."

"I know, but the fact that she kept this knowledge from us, if we didn't have the graphic novels to tell us the truth, we'll never know until it is too late." Buffy trailed off weakly.

"But we do know the curse now, and we can avoid it." Angel said putting his arms gently around Buffy's shoulders. "And when all's said and done, I did deserve to be cursed Buffy. The wrongs that Angelus had committed, I can never undo or repay back."

"Angel." Buffy said looking at him sadly.

"Come on, we better join the others before they get worried." Angel said steering Buffy towards the hangars.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Andromeda Inc. Hangar 1, 1900hr _

Andrew hummed as he laid the finishing touches to the three new communicators for Cordelia, Ms Calendar and Angel. He had a rough understanding of the more complex technologies now even if he did not put on the X-men gloves to access Forge's mutant powers. When he had access to Forge's powers, it felt like he had suddenly became smarter by a lot. He was able to quickly understand all the basic technological details Rommie was having him learn, but somehow, it also felt like cheating. This was why he had decided to try making the three new communicators on his own.

He turned his head and looked around the table he was occupying. Jonathan was in front of the rows of computers playing the various games that were in them. Cordelia was using a computer as well, but she was most probably surfing the net. Willow, Giles and Ms Calendar were pulling stacks of books out of boxes and stacking them onto the various shelves in the corner while Xander and Rommie were in a corner talking. Andrew frowned, Buffy's still missing.

There were sounds of footsteps near the door to Hangar 1 and as Andrew turned around, he saw Buffy entering with Angel _the _vampire, with a soul of course. Andrew couldn't help but feel how cool that was.

"Buffy!" Xander called out as he noticed her entrance. "… and Angel. We were just going to look for you guys."

"I saw Angel on the way back, so I waited for him." Buffy said with a shrug. "So are we going to have our 'how to deal with the latest big bads' meeting now?"

"Ah yes." Giles said, putting down the books he was in the midst of arranging. "Well now if everyone would gather at the table, we need to have a serious discussion about what we're going to do."

There were sounds of shuffling as everyone made for the table. Andrew took the three communicators with him. He moved towards Giles, passing him the devices.

"What is… oh the communicators, for Jenny and the others I presume?" Giles asked as he saw the communicators that Andrew had handed him.

"Yeah, I thought they might need them since they just joined. I just finished making them." Andrew said with a grin at showing off some of his creations.

"That's very thoughtful of you." Giles said to Andrew gratefully, before turning to pass Jenny, Cordelia and Angel one of the communicators each, as well as explaining what they are used for.

"Greetings noobs!" A voice said through everyone's communicator, causing Cordelia, Jenny and Angel to look at one another in shock. Andrew gave a chuckle while Rommie turned to the small World Devastator in the corner with a twitch in her eye.

"That's not very nice Leia." Rommie said with a frown before turning to Cordelia, Jenny and Angel. "I am sorry, that was Leia, I've no idea where she got her delectable humor from."

"What? I am just greeting them in earthling language. Noobs is a common web term for beginners." Leia said cheekily through the communicator.

"It is also a rude way of putting it." Rommie shot back. "I've browsed the web as well, stop poking fun at the new comers."

"Wet blanket." Leia muttered with a huff before the communicator grew silent.

Andrew saw Giles stepping forward, drawing attention to himself before giving a cough. "Very well, I think we should begin discussing our plans. Rommie and I had already come up with a few that we'll outline to all of you.

Firstly, Leia will begin helping us to produce the first fleet of 'Spies' before starting on producing another World Devastator. We plan to send out those 'Spies' in squads of five units, in case anything happened to one, there would still be the rest to report back. One squad will be assigned to Mayor Wilkins, to keep track of his going ons. One squad will be permanently placed around the High school library to keep track of anyone that might try to open the Hellmouth. One squad will be used to guard our current new headquarters, while another squad will guard Dawn. The rest of the squads will be assigned patrol duties around Sunnydale to keep us informed of any suspicious movements around town.

The 'Spies' will be equipped with the barest of technologies, except a cloak, a video recording device, warping device and a stunner. Basically this is to speed up production, and also because as 'Spies', they had no need for the more complex technologies common in a real starship. The 'Spies' will be able to communicate to us through our communicators as well in case of emergencies."

"That's good." Buffy said with a relieved sigh. "I will feel much better if Dawn is looked after."

"Yes, that's what Giles and I thought." Rommie said seriously. "As of now, your sister is in no position to protect herself. Both because she has no idea what's going on and because she's still powerless. Buffy, have you given thought about telling your mother and Dawn the truth?"

"What?" Buffy stared backed at her with wide eyes. "Mom will freak out, you saw what she did in the graphic novels, so will Dawn!"

"But you'll have us to back you up this time round." Rommie said calmly. "And since we have insight to their possible reactions, we could work to prevent that as well. I honestly think that it would be better if they were told. Xander could provide them with Halloween get ups that could give them more protection."

"I need more time to think about it." Buffy said hesitantly, looking at Angel and Xander for support.

"So what other plans did you guys make?" Xander asked Giles to spare Buffy of more of Rommie's good intentions.

"Well, regarding Glory, we now know she's residing in a human male's body as Kyubi is residing in yours." Giles said looking at Xander. "Is there any way for you to separate her from her host's body?"

"The seal to separate the fox from me might be applied to Glory, but it is still half done. I still hadn't started on it because I hadn't learn the most of the more complex seals yet. The fox said that he had actually begin the next step of crating the other half of the seal when he's not teaching or helping me, but even that is going to take him years." Xander said with a grimace. "And somehow I have this feeling we're not going to get years before Glory arrives."

"You may be correct in that." Giles said with a sigh, before directing a discreet knowing look at Angel that only Andrew saw. He frowned wondering what the two of them were up to but Giles had already continued.

"In that case, we'll just have to wait until she arrives before making plans. We'll have the spies patrolling Sunnydale to keep and eye out for her. For our arsenal, we still have the ray gun, but that wouldn't be enough in the long run. It might be prudent for you to bring out more heavy artillery from the Halloween dimension." Giles told Xander before turning the rest of the group. "Regarding the government organization that will settle in Sunnydale, we will have to keep a look out for them as well. From what we knew of the Mayor now, I highly suspect that the government organization had not taken root in Sunnydale yet. I doubt he would want the government poking in this town so soon. If we refer to the graphic novels, the government op only began after his death."

"That's good." Cordelia said with a shudder. "Demons are hard enough, add in creepy military guys who experiments on them is just too much."

"I wouldn't put it in those exact words, but yes, the government organization must be closely watched." Rommie agreed. "What Giles had listed are the major powers that you'll encounter in the coming years. Regarding the rest who wouldn't arrive so early, we'll just draw out temporarily plans and affirm them when the time comes. I'll also have Andromeda help me draw out several counter plans for the dangers that you'll encounter. She's a battleship after all."

"That will be helpful. I've forgotten we could use the rest of the mini ships to help." Xander said with a grin looking around. "I see Leia and Archangel in Hangar 1, so where are the rest?"

"Andromeda's in the connected Hangar 5 and 6, directing the droids to build the starship framework." Rommie explained. "I've already sent Gaia out to track Mayor Wilkins."

"That's good to hear. We need to know if Mayor Wilkins is up to anything." Giles said with a nod to Rommie. He turned to the rest and continued. "The next part we need to discuss is the company itself. Through the efforts of Xander, Rommie and me, we've set up a company that will hopefully generate enough profits on its own to pay for the various materials needed to build our own starships and other high tech equipments that Rommie and Andrew could provide us. Rommie, perhaps you'll like to explain? You did most of the planning and arrangements."

"Very well, as all of you might know, we can't rely on Xander to keep producing gold for us, his unique skills meant that the time should be spent on other pursuits that would be more beneficial to us, like morphing a replicator machine that we could use." Rommie explained. "That's why this company is set up. I have made a list of all of our manpower currently and came up with a plan for all of us to contribute to the success of this company.

There will be four divisions.

_Division Alpha _will be the Future Tech team consisting of me, Andrew and thirty-five of the current droids. Andromeda will also help out. We will be producing the starship and various other high tech equipments for the group's usage only. I will be in charge of this division.

_Division Beta _will be the Current Tech team consisting of Willow, Jenny and ten droids. Gaia is assigned to this division through she's not here currently. They will be in charge of looking through the plans Andromeda and Gaia have, of technologies usable for sale in your world at its current technological level. Jenny will be in charge of this group and also of the marketing of the produced products.

_Division Gamma _will the Cultural Advancements team consisting of Cordelia, Jonathan, Buffy and Xander. Five droids will be assigned to them. Gaia will be helping out here as well. They will be in charge of reviewing the cultural data that Gaia had provided us that are suitable for your world at this current time. The cultural data includes video games, clothes design, music, literature and so on. Cordelia will be in charge of this group."

"WHAT!" Xander and Buffy shouted.

"Why her?" Xander asked looking a bit betrayed that he was not picked.

"I've accessed Cordelia's school records this afternoon. Her marks were higher then you, Jonathan and Buffy. In fact I would rank her intelligence in the same level as Willow, but perhaps in a more social kind of field which this team will need. Regardless, if we're assigning team lead positions by their academic grades, Cordelia is the next best in academic scoring after Willow in this group." Rommie explained to Buffy and Xander who were looking at her and Cordelia with expressions of disbelief. Cordelia just looked very smug. "Add in her social skills, she would be most suitable to lead the division as well as market the products."

"How can her marks be higher than us, she spend all her time being the Highschool Queen!" Xander asked looking a bit aghast at this piece of information, then he paused as if remembering something. "Wait I think I recall the graphic novels foretelling that Cordelia has her pick of universities in the future."

"You've got that right. Navigating high school politics means that you not only have to have social skills and look pretty, you need brain smarts also." Cordelia said simply with a hint of self satisfaction. "I studied a lot at home just to reach the marks."

"I guess Cordelia can be the leader as long as she doesn't boss us around." Buffy conceded grudgingly. "We do live in a democratic society after all."

Cordelia lifted her nose with a sniff. "As long as you do your share of work, there's no need for me to boss you around."

Rommie quickly cut in before a cat fight erupts. "Moving on, I will list out the last division.

_Division Delta _will be the Research team consisting of Giles and Angel, as well as five droids. Archangel will be assigned here. They are the same as Division Alpha, both teams will be answerable to the group only. They will do any research that needs to be done, though if need be, droids from other divisions as well as all of you, might be asked to help out in the research."

Rommie paused as Buffy and Xander gave a cheer, Cordelia just rolled her eyes beside them. Andrew snickered as he heard Cordelia muttering something about raving lunatics.

"I've also set up schedules for all of you after looking at your school timetables." Rommie continued after the cheers had died down. "Giles and Ms Calendar will be spending time three times a week to teach all of you basic magic. Willow, Jonathan and Andrew in particular will be tutored intensively in this subject as it appears that you three have talent in this art in the future. However they will be strictly no practicing of what is termed the dark arts, any of you found to be exploring in that area will be punished.

Xander will also spend time two days a week to teach all of you the Sealing craft, as well as one day a week to teach the Ninja arts, which unfortunately he was unable to claim any proficiency in, so it's more of a trial and error method of teaching. I expect all of you to be diligent in your extracurricular studies because all of you will be expected to pull your weight in helping with the slaying, the responsibility will not fall solely on Buffy from now on."

Rommie turned to Buffy with understanding in her eyes. "You have friends now with powers themselves able to support you. It's time you get a life outside of slaying as well."

"Thanks." Buffy said softly with a grateful look.

"After reading the graphic novels, I've only scorn for this Watcher's Council of yours for sending Slayers out with no support." Rommie said with an angry look on her face, before she turned to Xander. "Another issue Xander, it might be best to equip Cordelia, Jenny and Angel with something to protect themselves with. I've also drafted out plans for patrol teams involving them with approval from Giles.

Starting now, there will be two patrol teams:

_Patrol Team One _will include Buffy, Giles, Andrew, Willow and Jonathon.

_Patrol Team Two _will include Xander, Jenny, Cordelia, Angel and Rommie.

Leadership of the Teams will shift after each patrol, with everyone taking a turn. Team One will patrol on the odd days of the week, Team Two will patrol on the even days of the weeks."

Andrew saw Buffy moving to argue, most probably about why Angel and her were separated, but a nudge from Angel and a quick shake of his head silenced her. Andrew frowned as he saw Angel sharing an affirming look with Rommie. The adults were up to something, though he had no idea what it was about. _Unless _… Andrew gave Angel and Buffy another look. _Unless they were trying to break up Angel and Buffy_. And it seemed that Angel was agreeable with it. Andrew made a note to keep silent over his suspicions, there's no need to add more fuel to the fire.

"Also there's one more important thing. I've created a new AI from the AI algorithms taken from Gaia's databanks. This AI is strictly speaking a 'male' AI. He will be in charge of security in the headquarters. All the cameras on the grounds are being monitored by him, as well as the group of computers over there. I had Gaia transferred some of her data regarding technologies and cultural data usable in this world into our main server. The Beta and Gamma divisions can source through the tons of information to find out what you all wish to create and sell to the world from the computers connected to the server." Rommie explained pointing to the rows of the computers.

"I am sure Jonathan at least knew where the game data were stored. I saw you playing some of the games just now. The AI is named Harper… after one of my closest companion. Unfortunately I've not yet set up any interface for him to communicate with us yet, though he's able to communicate through the computers with all of you if he so wish. If you have any questions for him, just speak into the microphones beside each computer and he will response. He's still getting used to his programming core, so he might be a bit shy about talking to any of you just yet. In case of any hostile intrusions, he would self destruct, taking with him all the data in the computers and servers."

"Wow." Jonathan said suitably impressed.

Xander gave Rommie a grateful grin. "You really planned out everything Rommie, thanks."

"I've a better understanding of your group through the graphic novels, someone needs to lay out careful planning of both the slaying and the company if both are to succeed. Giles is but one man, all of you need to start learning how to plan and led others in the future. That's one reason why the patrol team leader position rotates with each patrol. I expect all of you to learn from each other's mistakes and to take charge in case of emergencies." Rommie explained before turning to look at Giles.

"We will begin the plans starting from tonight. I have talked to Jenny, she will begin teaching the basics of magic right now while Xander will teach the Sealing Craft afterwards." Giles spoke up, taking over from Rommie. "Patrol Team One will begin their patrol of Sunnydale now. Xander and I will teach them magic and seal craft when Team Two is out tommorow. There will be days when Xander's not available in Team Two patrols, which is the reason why two heavy hitters, Angel and Rommie are assigned to the group. Does anyone have anything against the arrangements?"

"I am fine with it." Cordelia said with a shrug. "But when am I getting my Halloween weapons?"

"I will bring you guys to the Halloween dimensions tonight." Xander said reaching into his pockets and taking out several strips of paper. "I've the seals needed with me. All of you can pick any two weapons that you want. Just make sure to pick something you know how to use and that can lend you an edge in a fight."

"Good." Cordelia said with a nod.

"Before the lessons begin. Xander, I would like to ask if there is anyway for you to affix Angel's soul permanently to him?" Rommie asked. Buffy perked up at the question.

Xander paused as if listening to the fox spirit in his head and then gave a grimace. "I wouldn't know for sure until I try, but the fox said that he might have some ideas about how to go about doing it. But we're going to need more information about the curse placed on him."

"I can provide that information." Jenny spoke up quietly from beside Giles. She pulled several folded sheets of paper from her handbag and passed them to Xander. "That is the gypsy curse used on Angel, though it's in Romany. You will need to find a way to translate it into English before you can use it."

"But Jenny are you sure your clan is alright with this?" Giles asked looking at her in shock.

"My clan was the one that sent me the curse, the clan elder had a vision. She had told me that the clan is going to withdraw any claims on Angel or Angelus. The responsibility is now on all of us to make sure that Angelus never returns." Jenny said simply, avoiding Giles' questioning look.

Xander looked at the papers in his hands as he tried to read the Romany letterings and gave up. He turned to Angel.

"Giles' going to be out with patrol one, and you're the guy in the research department. So does that means I give you the curse to translate?" Xander asked with a bright friendly grin.

Buffy shot Xander a dirty look as Angel took the papers with a sigh.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Orlando rushed through the streets of downtown LA, stopping beside a van that had seen better days.

"General Gregor! Our brothers have news!" Orlando said to his counterpart inside the van, who was dressed in a suit of armor.

"What have they found?" General Gregor asked grimly, the Knights of Byzantium had been tracking Glory and the Key weeks after they had discovered the deaths of the monks from the Order of Dagon.

"They had sighted the Beast and her minions." Orlando said gravely. "Apparently there's still one survivor from the Order of Dagon and they are tracking him."

General Gregor cursed. "The Order of Dagon was a bunch of pacifist fools. The Beast most probably planned for the monk to lead her to the Key. Gather the rest of the brothers. We are going after them, and if need be, destroy the Key so Glory would not get her hands on it."

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**Andromeda Inc. Teams: **

_**Team Alpha: Future Tech **_

Members - Rommie, Anakin and Andrew

Leader - Rommie

In-Charge of - Future technologies usable by the group only.

Starship Assigned - Andromeda

Number of droids assigned - 35 droids, of which 25 were assigned to building a new starship framework, 10 were assigned to help build the rest of the experimental projects.

_**Team Beta: Current Tech R&D **_

Members - Willow , Ms Calendar and later Oz

Leader - Ms Calendar

In-Charge of - Technologies that were suitable for selling to the public

Starship Assigned - Gaia

Number of droids assigned - 10 droids

_**Team Gamma: Cultural Advancements **_

Members - Cordelia, Jonathan, Buffy, Xander and later Joyce

Leader - Cordelia, later Joyce

In-Charge of - Review cultural data that could be sold in this current century. eg. Games, clothes etc.

Starship Assigned - Gaia

Number of droids assigned - 5 droids

_**Team Delta: Research **_

Members - Giles, Angel and later Dawn

Leader - Giles

In-Charge of - Researching on anything concerning the supernatural

Starship Assigned - Archangel

Number of droids assigned - 5 droids

_-Xander created 60 droids in total. 5 were assigned the menial tasks of cleaning and repairing the airstrip. _

_Patrol Team One _will include Buffy, Giles, Andrew, Willow and Jonathon.

_Patrol Team Two _will include Xander, Jenny, Cordelia, Angel and Rommie.

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**Author's Note: **

-Please take note that regarding my opening quotes, Willow and the rest gained their massive powers gradually and not in one fell shot. I just want to highlight Dawn's potential in my story, even though she wouldn't really be a main character. Note that thousands of years had passed in the events of the quotes, the reason why those that had lived that long are so powerful.

-Enyos is _not _an OC, he is Jenny Calendar's uncle who appeared briefly in Btvs Season 2 before being killed by Angelus. And no, he and the Romany clan will _not _take major roles in the story. Only Jenny will become a core Scooby.

-There will be no more major crossovers for the moment other than Rommie and Anakin, the story is becoming a bit too complex at the moment. There will still be minor crossover characters being added to the group. Slimer and Casper will appear soon, maybe in chapter 9 or 10, depends. They will be assigned a sentry guard type role, as one reviewer had suggested they might be used for. I will like to say thanks to the reviewer for giving me the idea =D

-For those of you asking about Anakin, he will appear in the next chapter.

-Regarding Kyubi, some of you might have noticed that I used the term 'fox demon' and 'fox spirit' exchangeably. In Naruto-verse, Kyubi is described as an yokai, which could both mean a spirit or a demon. One thing why the term was interchangeable is most probably because the oriental form of demon is vastly different from those of the western world, and the term is used quite loosely.

-Please let me know if I have left out any major Buffy verse characters, the characters list is getting a bit long and I might miss out on some stuff.

-And lastly, hope you guys enjoy this new chapter!

Thanks to my beta for helping me beta this chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

**8. Chapter Eight: Beginning of the End 2/2**

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**Summary:** One Halloween Night changed everything for Xander. Agreeing to a contract with the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon for power, he unknowingly unleashed great evils to the world... changing everything for the Scooby Gang. Buffy / Naruto / Andromeda / Starwars / Multiple Crossovers

**Crossover:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters, objects or plots from  
Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, Andromeda TV series, Star Wars, Stargate SG-1 TV series, Casper the friendly ghost, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Ghostbusters, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VI (Final Fantasy III in North America), X-Men, Primeval TV series, Final Fantasy X-2, Highlander, Smallville TV series, Star Ocean Video Game series, Gundam Manga and Anime series, Xenosaga Video Game series, Naruto Manga and Anime series, Dungeons and Dragons, Carebears, Pinky and the Brain, Star Trek, Gurps, One Piece Manga

**Book Title:** Master of the Forbidden Seals

**Author:** Wraithrune

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**Chapter 8: Beginning of the End 2/2**

_"Carebears powers! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!"  
~ The Carebears on their first attempts to invoke good and happy feelings in a vampire. Unfortunately, when the vampire was dusted by their combined love and caring energies, several of them needed serious conditional therapy as they went into shock at killing their __**first**__ sentinel creature._

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_Halloween dimension 2015hr_

_Chosen…_

Anakin blinked as he found himself surrounded by the force, flashes of images running through the force in front of him. He remembered taking physical form, before becoming senseless. Now the force called to him again, reviving him in spirit, freeing him of whatever had sent him to slumber.

"What are you trying to tell me?" Anakin asked, struggling to make sense of the flashing images.

_Save them._ The force whispered. _Be the guide for the One who Sees and Guardian of the Key…_

For a moment, Anakin saw a vision of a group of children with a few adults gathered over a table. Something about the group felt strange to him, the force seemed to be drawing away from the group as a whole, as if afraid to touch them.

Then the vision disappeared and the darkness swallowed him, scrambling his weakening force senses. Something told him this was very bad as Anakin struggled with all his powers to push back the darkness.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_Cemetary 2045hr_

"Why are we breaking into a mausoleum?" Buffy asked, brushing away the cobwebs trying to cling to her hair. "I thought we're supposed to patrol?"

"Well, this mausoleum belongs to Josephus du Lac." Giles explained as he shines his flashlight around the interior of the mausoleum. "Spike would supposedly come to steal the Du Lac cross in the future which would enable him to decrypt the book he had stolen from me a few weeks back."

"Oh! I remembered now." Buffy said understanding as she remembered what she had read in the comics. "There's a spell in the book that could heal Drusilla to full power if they could sacrifice Angel. Ok… that's majorly bad news, so where's the cross?"

"I don't think there's a word called 'majorly' Buffy." Giles corrected primly as he looked thoughtfully at the tomb sitting in the middle of the mausoleum and the craved walls around it. "And to answer your question, I am not sure, we'll just have to look around. Willow, Jonathon, Andrew, search the walls. Buffy, you open the tomb."

"Ewww! Why must I do that?" Buffy said in disgust.

"You're the only one with super strength." Willow pointed out to her with a grin.

Buffy gave a long suffering sigh and made for the tomb. She held in her breath as she hefted the stone lid of the tomb onto the floor with a heavy thud, wrinkling her nose at the musty smell that escaped from the tomb.

"Ah there it is!" Giles exclaimed, reaching in a hand to retrieve a small gold cross beside the mummified remains in the tomb. "Alright, we can continue the patrol now."

There was a creak as the metal grills to the mausoleum opened and several vampires walked in.

"Well, well, I thought I saw light down here. So what do we have here? Grave robbers?" One of the vampires laughed, showing his fangs at them.

"Are they stupid? They just walk right into our hands." Jonathon remarked to Andrew beside him.

"What!" The vampires snarled, incensed.

"I think their IQ dropped by half once they became vampires. Like hello? Only those who have aces up their sleeves would brave the night of Sunnydale." Buffy remarked as she pulled out her sword. The vampires had given a united growl, running down the stairs towards them. "Alright everyone! It's vamp dusting time!"

Giles shook his head with a sigh as showers of sparks from Willow, exploding rubber balls from Jonathon and Buffy's sword strikes slammed into the first three vampires who could only stared at the three teenagers in disbelief before they turned to dust.

Andrew looked at the last surviving vampire and grinned as he called out the cure spell from the Unicorn magicite he was clutching in his hand. A ball of white light arced through the air striking the vampire, burning through him like acid.

Buffy grimaced as she finished off the screaming vampire and turning to look at Andrew.

"What did you do to him?" Buffy asked in distaste.

"I cast a cure spell on him. The cure spell can supposedly do damage to the undead in the Final Fantasy worlds." Andrew explained happily. "I guess that trait carried over to present day Sunnydale. Isn't that a cool weapon against the undead?"

"That is useful, but you currently lack any offensive edge against creatures other than the undead." Giles reasoned from the side. "You'll stay at the back of the group during all the fights until you gain a more offensive weapon."

"Ah shunks." Andrew groaned.

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_Halloween dimension 2230hr_

Jenny felt a wave of energy hit her as she reappeared in what should be the Halloween dimension Giles had talked about. They had finished going through the basic magic and seal studies with the group and Xander had then announced he was taking everyone to the Halloween dimension. Cordelia had arrived before her and was already looking at the items piled up all over the dimension. There was a flash as Rommie, Angel and Xander appeared behind her as well.

"Well, welcome to the Halloween dimension." Xander said sweeping his arm to encompass the whole room. "You've remembered what to do with the two seals I've given you each right? Just go on and chose your costumes or equipments."

"Thanks Xander." Jenny said nodding to the boy before walking away. There was an uncomfortable feeling around her, of being in a pressurized room but she ignored it. Xander had warned them of the possible effects that the Halloween dimension had on those sensitive to magic so she had been prepared for it.

She gazed at the various costumes and items on display and wondered what she should pick. Giles had told her that a few of the children had x-men gloves which granted them the powers of the x-men. For a moment, Jenny wondered if she should follow suit. Though she did not follow the x-men comics and cartoon series, she did know that they were a bunch of mutated humans with superhuman powers. Those kinds of powers would be incredibly useful on the hellmouth, especially now that she had pledged her help to Giles and his charges.

The words of her uncle echoed in her head as she pressed her lips grimly together.

"Gain their trust, and judge their worth." Her uncle had told her in the afternoon during his phone call.

Apparently the clan elder had a rare vision in which she saw the future of Gile's group of charges. The vision had warned of a tide of terrible dark powers rising and the only ones who were a match to those dark powers was this little group. A group of children who had accidentally come into possession of immerse powers. The clan elder had wanted Jenny to get into their group and keep a watch on these children as well as to pass the responsibility of guarding Angel's soul to the children. It had been a gesture of goodwill from the clan to Giles' group, though her uncle had warned her not to tell the children or Giles about the vision.

"We must see the path they would take before we take action." Her uncle had warned her.

Jenny had agreed to that request, which was why she was here now, and which was why she had vowed to keep the children on the straight and narrow. Power could easily corrupt, that was a lesson she well know, her only male cousin had gone rogue, dabbling into the darker magics when she was nine. Jenny had seen the wanton destruction and deaths he had caused before the clan managed to hunt him down. This was a lesson she knew Giles had experienced as well, and that's why she was not as worried for him as she was for the children.

She was more concerned with Willow especially, and Andrew. She had read through the graphic novels that foretold their futures, and Willow and Andrew had brushes with powerful dark magics, both would bear careful monitoring. Xander on the other hand was a question mark. If what Giles said was true, the powers Xander possessed right now from the nine-tailed fox demon in his body was incredible, he would have to be watched closely as well.

Jenny gave a sigh. It seemed that her life had gotten more interesting.

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_Halloween dimension 2230hr_

Angel was feeling a bit hungry. It was understandable as he did not have his regular blood pack for dinner. When he had come to the hangar, he had expected a quick meeting before going back, unfortunately things had dragged on. After the meeting was done Xander had unblock Cordelia's chakra pathways, allowing her to use magic. Jenny had began teaching Xander and Cordelia the basics of witchcraft, which was later followed by Xander teaching Jenny and Cordelia the basics of sealing, Angel had decided to stay back to decipher the Romany curse that Jenny had passed them.

It was not that he had much hope for his curse, but if Xander could ever make sure his soul stayed with him permanently, then maybe, maybe he wouldn't need to fear being happy again. It was so hard to believe that right now, he was pinning all his hope on the child. He knew that Xander never did like him much, but Xander had been quite civil to him the whole day, after everyone was informed of what their future would bring. It might be his imagination, but a few times during the meeting, he thought he saw Xander looking at him with something akin to respect and acknowledgement.

He himself had been shocked at what he had become, what the future would turn him into… Angel closed his eyes weary before opening them and looking around the Halloween dimension. Now was not the time to be dwelling on the future. He didn't really need a Halloween weapon, especially since he had vampire healing, senses and strength. But maybe he could find something to nibble on. He didn't believe there would be blood here, but maybe there could be food. Vampires never eat solid food because it didn't do anything to relieve their hunger, but they could ingest solid food if they wanted to. If he had something to nibble on, he might be able to keep himself occupied enough to temporarily forget his hunger.

Angel began searching around.

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_Halloween dimension 2230hr_

Rommie looked at the six seals in her hands. Xander had given them to her after she had asked if she could take more of the advanced technological weaponry out of the Halloween dimension. One reason was because they needed a few heavy offensive artilleries on hand in case of any emergencies. She had warned Giles, Angel and Jenny that they couldn't rely on the ray gun that Xander had brought out as their kill all and end all weapon. What if something happened to the ray gun or if the monster they were fighting was impervious to the extreme burst of light rays?

Of course that's all a very low possibility, but they were points that needed to be considered. Then there was the other matter of energy generators. With the amount of androids they now had, as well as herself, a significant amount of electricity was needed to power up all of them. On this resource poor planet, this would turn out to be a problem, especially when the electricity bill arrived. She could of course ask Xander to morph an energy generator, but it might be just easier for her to build a new one, albeit simpler in design than those used on star ships.

She had taken a look at the ray gun before she came upon the idea of building her own generator. As she suspected, the ray gun ran on fusion energy contained in a very small energy cell. The energy cell from that ray gun could provide Rommie and all the androids they now possessed with energy for more then two plus years. But since that ray gun was their wild card against the demons at the moment, Rommie had requested to take out more high tech weapons so that she could extract the energy cells from the weapons and build her own generators.

She began walking towards a strange set of armor which definitely fit in the realms of high tech. It was standing behind the Darth Vader character which Xander had explicitly warned her not to touch for fear of that character awakening. Rommie gave it a wide berth as she stood in beside the armored figure. Laying a hand on it, she tried to interface with it… and came across another entity. It was slumbering now, but Rommie got the sense of an A.I. entity that was surprisingly complex. It might even be more powerful then her in certain aspects. This revelation greatly humbled Rommie. All Rommie got was its name, Cortana. As Rommie tried to access the armor system, she realized that there was also a human in the armor.

Rommie blinked her eyes, a reflexive action that was tied to her programming. She needed to check up this Cortana A.I. in this world's pop cultural. If the A.I. and the human inside the armor proved to be benign, she would try to argue on their behalf for Xander to release them from this… stasis prison. It just didn't feel right for her to see something sentinel being kept frozen in this sub-dimension.

She turned and walked towards the guns section where most of the high tech weaponries were. Rommie saw Jenny Calendar walking from the place with something small in her hands. It didn't look like any weapon that she had seen before. Rommie shrugged, maybe she would ask Jenny later.

As she near the weapon piles, Rommie swept a critical eye across the weapons and quickly begin lying seals on two of the ray guns that were of similar designs to the one Xander had brought out previously. She also picked up three other guns that looked like they possessed energy cells. As she prepared to leave, one of the weapons buried beneath the pile caught her eye. Her eyes widened. As per Xander's instructions, she had put on a pair of gloves before coming to the Halloween dimension. Now using her gloved hands, she began to dig through the guns to reach the weapon.

When she managed to get a hold of the weapons and pulled it out, Rommie smiled as she saw that it was a High Guard force lance. A High Guard force lance belonged to her universe, and it was one of the weapon types she had frequently used in battle. It could fire plasma shots as well as tiny attack drones called effectors. Now as she held the force lance in her hands, she felt a sense of comfort and familiarity. It was as if she was holding a piece of home in her hands.

All six weapons chosen, Rommie looked around for the others, and saw a very peculiar sight.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_Halloween dimension 2230hr_

Cordelia beamed at the rows of costumes around her. So many options, so many powers, all for her to chose, she felt like a kid in a candy store. It was hard to believe that so much had happened in just one day. For one thing, she now knew her future, what would happen and how she was going to die. She had seen how shallow she had been in the graphic novels before maturing into a woman that even she felt respect for.

All through her life, she had hanged out with the 'In crowd', buy the right brands, dress in the latest fashions just to be popular, to have people respect her, to be acknowledged. But now, Cordelia realized she didn't really care anymore, she already knew the person she would become, now she would just have to work towards becoming future her, except that this time she would not die so young. Cordelia was anything but stupid. She had realized that right now, being with Xander and the others were probably her best bet of living to a ripe old age if she was to survive her own destiny.

This was why she had not complained when they had added her as an official member of their group. It was why she was here now looking for Halloween items that could make her a force to be reckoned with during a fight.

She paused in front of a pile of Halloween accessories, rings, amulets, head bands, pouches and wands of all kinds, floating in mid air. Cordelia ran her gloved hands through the various items, amazed at the riches this Halloween dimension possessed. There were a lot of gold and diamond rings scattered in the pile. A sparkling gold brand caught her eye and she reached her hand into the pile to pull it out. Several rings from the top of the pile rolled down and brushed against the uncovered part of her arms. For a heart stopping moment, foreign memories that do not belong to her rushed into her head and took over her body.

_She was Aeriln, a half elf and one of the apprentices of the great wizard Morilyn. On this day, at the eve of her birthing day, her master had gifted her with a ring of fire as her birthing day present. Aeriln gazed at the enchanted fire ruby ring in glee…_

_He was Horgath, thief and rogue. Hearing of great treasures in the ruins near Waterdeep, he had ventured in with a group of adventurers and their many trails, they had came upon an old treasure room filled with magical artifacts. They had spilt what they had found, and Horgath himself had filled his pockets with gold pieces, two magical daggers, as well as a Star Opal ring which granted him instantaneous teleportation abilities…_

Cordelia blinked as she snapped out of the memories, looking at the two rings that had rolled away from her arms. So this was what Xander had meant by being taken over by the Halloween memories. It was dangerous, but at least now she knew what powers two of the rings had. Fire and teleportation… she wondered if the other rings possessed magical abilities as well. But the only way to know what each of the rings does was to touch them with bare skin, and that could be dangerous if she was possessed.

Then an idea blossomed in her mind. Cordelia grinned as using her left hand, she took up another ring and held it over the exposed part of her right arm, and then she dropped it. As the ring struck her arm and bounced off, a flicker of memory rushed through her head, quickly disappearing as the ring rolled back onto the pile.

"A ring of invisibility. That's cool." Cordelia said looking at the ring. "Well let's see what powers the other rings and accessories have…"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_Halloween dimension 2230hr_

Xander wandered the Halloween dimension, one seal in his hand. He had distributed the rest to Angel, Rommie, Cordelia and Ms Calendar. Right now he was just looking for anything of interest to take back. He hadn't been back to the Halloween dimension since the last time he had brought Andrew and Jonathon here. He had been kept too busy trying to 'see' all the essences of the tiny android so he could use the morph materia to morph it. It had been a lot of work that kept him busy for weeks.

"Ok there's Pinky and the Brain." Xander remarked as he saw a cage that contained a pair of white rats. One was tall and skinny, the other short and plump, floating in the middle of a pile of toys. "Remind me to stick a sign telling everyone not to take them out of the dimension."

_"Pinky and the Brain?"_ The Kyubi rumbled in confusion before understanding crept into his voice as he accessed Xander's memories. _"Oh a pair of evil rat genius from the cartoons. Really, the weird culture that your world has, it just astonishes me. Whoever heard of evil rats? Now foxes, we are the masters of evil and cunning. Hahaha…"_

"And I see you practiced the evil Overlord's laugh really well." Xander said dryly. He blinked as he turned saw the boxes of toys next to the rats. "…and there's the Carebears."

Xander smacked his face as he imagined the Carebears running around Sunnydale, it was enough to raise his creep factor. "Ethan Rayne must have been trying to boast his profit margin by selling toys and models aside from actual Halloween costumes that night. I wonder how many other toys came alive. Sorting all of them out is going to be a nightmare."

_"Once we've done an inventory of this place, we'll know for sure."_ Kyubi said before giving a mental shudder as he peeked at Xander's memories. _"Evil rat genius I can stand, but a bunch of fluffy bears talking about caring and love makes me want to eat them or punch kittens. Don't even think about taking them out!"_

"Do I look like I want a bunch of talking teddy bears evangelizing about love and caring walking around Sunnydale? Angel would probably stab me in my sleep if that happens." Xander said, rolling his eyes. He strolled around the Halloween dimension taking note of the various Halloween characters that had came alive. There was the Darth Vader, and another strangely armored character of some sort near him. In the second corner of the dimension was four characters, one green haired man with three swords, a blond man in a suit, a boy with a straw hat, and a pretty brunette girl with a pole of some sort.

In third corner of the Halloween dimension was a burly man dressed in leather, as well as a young girl dressed in gothic clothing with gleaming dark hair. There was also a third figure beside them dressed robin-hood style, with a green mask. Xander recognized him at once, it was the Green Arrow, a masked superhero who was an expert marksman.

Xander turned to the fourth corner of the room since it looked like Ethan had placed the human sized models in all four corners of his shop. He saw a row of robes hanging in midair, covering the models from view. Xander walked closer, pushing away the robes and froze at the sight of the two figures he revealed.

He was looking at two Konoha ninjas from Naruto's home village. One was a younger version of Shikamaru Nara, while the other was an Anbu, a sort of military ninja police, who goes by the name of Anko. His heart clenched in part pain and sorrow at the remembrance of Naruto's memories.

Shikamaru had grown up to become one of the most brilliant tacticians the village of Konoha had ever seen, defeating many enemies by wit alone. His ability to manipulate one's own shadows to attack and defend was nothing to laugh at either. Anko on the other hand had given her life to save Naruto from an assassination attempt shortly after he had become Hokage, which was the position of the village leader for his whole ninja village. Mistress of snakes and vicious hand to hand fighting styles, she was much feared on the battlefield when she had been alive. Though Naruto's memories were faint now, Xander still felt his eyes tear up at the sight of these two individuals.

One had been Naruto's best friend, while the other had saved his life. Xander felt torn as he looked at the two Konoha ninjas.

"We've got to get them out now." Xander said, looking for any surface he could draw a seal with. A unique seal was needed to detach the chaos energies around the Halloween characters in the Halloween dimension and he had brought none with him.

_"And do what?" _Kyubi asked pointedly. _"Where are they going to live? How are they going to fit into your world? Have you given thought to that?"_

"But…" Xander protested.

_"The brashness of youth. You want this now, you want that now, without careful thought of the consequences. Naruto had been the same when he was younger." _Kyubi huffed indignantly in Xander's head. _"At least prepare a place they could live and ease their way into your world before you release them from the Halloween dimension. I doubt they would want to live on your charity either, so you need to find some ways for them to provide for themselves."_

"You're right of course." Xander said with a sigh. "I guess I'll discuss with Giles and Rommie, see what we can do for them first before bringing them out."

_"Now you're thinking."_ Kyubi said in approval. _"Anyway, what's that chattering in the background?"_

"Chattering?" Xander asked before he realized he could hear Cordelia and Ms Calendar's voices nearby. The shock at seeing a real life Shikamaru and Anko had caused him to lose his focus. Xander blinked wearily as he made his way out. He pushed his way pass the robes and looked around the Halloween dimension. "I wonder what's going on there?"

Xander made his way around the rows of Halloween costumes and found Cordelia and Ms Calendar gathered in front of a pile of accessories. Cordelia had already put on an emerald ring on her right hand and an opal ring on her left hand. She was taking up various other rings and dropping them on Ms Caldendar's exposed arms.

"Hey! Hey! What are you guys doing? That's dangerous!" Xander exclaimed rushing forward. His heart had constricted as he saw Ms Calendar froze up when the rings touched her bare arms. He came to a stop in front of the Cordelia just as Ms Calendar returned to her senses, opening her eyes and looking at Xander.

"Oh Cordelia was just showing me how to test the rings." Ms Calendar said with a smile at Cordelia. "She came up with an ingenuous idea of letting the Halloween objects contact our bare skin temporarily so that we could access the memories and see what powers the Halloween objects have."

"Oh." Xander said deflating a little now that he saw that Ms Calendar seemed fine. He turned and saw Cordelia giving him a smug look and sighed as he offered her a half-hearted praise. "That's quite an… idea."

"It's nothing." Cordelia said with a shrug. "But isn't there a way for us to keep the Halloween memories without them taking us over? Some of the Halloween characters have a couple of useful knowledge that could help us in a fight."

_"Her idea actually seemed quite practical."_ Kyubi remarked in his head. _"A slight tweaking of the 'Null Personality' seal should allow access to the memories without them taking control."_

_"I hate it when she's right." _Xander sighed mentally to the fox before turning to Cordelia and saying out loud. "I could start work on that, that's a very good idea. So what did you get for yourself?"

"Oh I got the ring of plant manipulation and the ring of teleportation." Cordelia said beaming at him. "You couldn't believe the offensive uses the mages from the Halloween personalities used for these two rings. Imagine being cut to death by blades of grass, or better yet, imagine being teleported fifty feet into the air and smashed down to earth."

Xander shivered at the sadistic grin that Cordelia was giving him and quickly turned to Ms Calendar.

"So what about you Ms Calendar?" Xander asked as she picked out a quartz ring.

"Oh I had a phaser gun from star trek and I am going to pick a ring of lightning." Ms Calendar said with a smile. Her face suddenly went pale as she looked passed Xander. "Oh my goodness, what's Angel doing?"

Xander spin around and gaped at the sight of Angel breathing fire.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Andromeda Inc. Hangar 1, 2330hr_

"I swear, if you accidentally strike me with your powers again, I am going to roast you over a large fire!" Buffy growled at Jonathon as they made their way back to their new headquarters.

Giles rubbed his head tiredly. The rest of the patrol had gone well as they had chanced upon a vampire nest. They had proceeded to dust all the vampires, until Jonathon had misfired one of his exploding rubber balls at Buffy. Two of the vampires they had been after had escaped during the confusion of friendly crossfire. Luckily, Buffy was able to heal herself back to prime condition with her immortal sword. However, the pain that she had felt when the rubber ball had blasted away a chunk of her flesh had left her in a foul mood. Giles had to arrange for Willow and Andrew to be between Buffy and Jonathon so that she would not shred him to pieces physically instead of just verbally.

"I am sorry." Jonathon said in a very remorseful voice as Buffy shot him a dark look.

They stepped into the hangar and froze at the sight that greeted them.

"Did something happen while we were out?" Andrew asked as he looked into the hangar.

Several of the new chairs seemed scorched, and there were water dripping from them. Several portions of the cement floor were also darkened and drenched with water. The middle of the hangar was cleared of any objects, and there was a burnt smell in the air. Angel was sitting in the center looking a bit depressed. At the other end of the hangar, Cordelia was giving Angel a distrusting stare with several buckets of water lined out beside her. Xander, Jenny and Rommie were gathered at the computer consoles frantically typing some stuff.

"What's going on?" Buffy demanded as she stepped forward to the middle patch of the room.

"Don't!" Cordelia screamed from the other end, just as Angel gave a loud burp. A jut of flames exploded from his lips, narrowing missing Buffy's face. As it was, she could feel the intense heat scorching her face.

Buffy and the returning patrol team froze, standing near the door of the hangar in a moment of stunned silence.

"Angel ate some weird fruit in the Halloween dimension, and now he's burping fire." Cordelia called out to them. "Xander and the others are still trying to find out what that fruit was."

"He ate a fruit?" Giles said in an incredulous tone of voice. "What does a vampire need to eat a fruit for?"

"He said he was hungry and needed something to nibble on." Cordelia called back in a disgusted tone of voice.

Giles' rubbed his head wearily as he saw Angel's guilty look. "Buffy go get some blood for Angel, the rest of us will find out what Angel had eaten."

"But how are we going to cross over if Angel's breathing fire?" Jonathon asked as he gauged the distance they would have to cross to run pass Angel.

"By this." Cordelia called from the other end pointing her hand at them.

There was a flash of light and Giles, Andrew, Jonathon and Willow found themselves beside Cordelia. Buffy remained at the door of the hangar looking at them in surprise.

"I got myself a teleportation ring." Cordelia explained, holding up her left hand which spotted an opal ring. "Which is why I am on 'putting out fire' duty because I can splash water at all the hard to reach places."

Giles saw the disgruntled look on Cordelia's face and decided not probe farther.

"Alright, all of you, let's go help Xander and the others." Giles said shooing Willow, Jonathon and Andrew towards the computers before turning to face Buffy. "Go and get Angel some blood, I think he should be starving by now."

Angel looked up giving Buffy a hopeful look as she nodded and dashed outside, it was just at that moment Angel gave another burp. The jut of flames was more intense this time and nearly reached the door to the hangar.

"Try to control your powers dammit!" Cordelia called out as she teleported a piled of water over the scorched doorway.

Giles quickly moved away from Cordelia who seemed to be in a bad temper. He resigned himself to trying to see if he could be of any help to Jenny, even though he had no idea how to use those infernal machines that they called computers.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Andromeda Inc. Hangar 1, 0050hr_

"I think I found out what fruit he ate." Rommie spoke up at last. She had been linking herself directly to the internet to surf the net faster, and had at last narrowed down the object of her search.

"What did he eat?" Buffy asked as everyone began moving towards Rommie. Buffy had just returned with the blood which Angel was sipping now, Cordelia had then teleported her to the other side where she had been helping Cordelia refill the buckets of water from the pantry.

"Harper, show the information on Devil Fruit." Rommie called out to the computer console in front of her.

"Yes Rommie." A soft masculine voice spoke from the computer speakers. The others ignored the voice and turned to Rommie incredulously.

"Devil Fruit?" Jenny gave a start at the name. "Are they dangerous?"

"Not exactly." Rommie said as the web page on the computer began to load.

Giles lean forward for a closer look and blinked at the information.

"Devil Fruit were objects from the One Piece manga and anime universe that granted the person who ate them special powers, depending on the fruit they ate. There are more than 100 types of Devil Fruit, and they come in different shapes and colors. All Devil Fruits have swirl marks on them of some kind which fits the description of the fruit Angel had eaten. It also fits the description of the pile of fruits that Angel had gotten his from. However with this power comes a weakness, Devil Fruit users are susceptible to all types of water, not just seawater. "Moving" water, like rain or waves, does not weaken Devil Fruit users, while standing water does. One's body would also be destroyed if he consumed more than one Devil Fruit." Giles read out loud.

"So that means Angel gained the power to breathe fire permanently?" Buffy asked for clarification.

Rommie nodded gravely. "So it would seem. Unfortunately, it also meant that Angel must learn to control his powers on his own."

"What! I am not going to stay by his side all the time for fire control duty. He had better learn to control his powers fast." Cordelia said loudly from the sidelines.

"Well Xander, is there any way for you to … moderate Angel's new abilities until he could get the hang of it?" Giles asked turning to Xander who looked thoughtful.

"Naruto knew some seals to restrict the powers of enemy ninjas." Xander volunteered at last after much thought. "But I am not sure if that's going to work, since Angel is an undead, and have no chakra to speak of."

"It wouldn't hurt to try." Jenny said encouragingly. "If it doesn't work, we'll think of something else."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Andromeda Inc. Hangar 1, 0145hr_

Xander breathed a sigh of relief as Giles and the others made their way back. In the end the seal had worked after a few tries and some tweaking. Angel's fire powers were seriously weakened, now all Angel could manage was a small burst of flames from his lips. Giles had told Angel to come in tomorrow to practice some form of meditation to see if that could help with his control. Control which Angel seriously needed.

Currently, the droids were moving to clean up the smog marks, wet floor and to put everything back in place. Xander shuddered, they had been lucky that Angel did not do much damage in the Halloween dimension. They had managed to bring Angel back to the hangar when they realized that his fire breathing powers were growing steadily stronger by the minute.

Xander sink tiredly into the couch near the pantry. Rommie had retreated to Hangar 2 to begin extracting the energy cells from the ray guns she brought out from the Halloween dimension. According to her, there should be enough for her to build a small generator that could generate enough electricity for them to last the next coming years.

He heard typing going on at the control consoles and turned to look, seeing Jonathon and Andrew still around. The two of them had wanted to stay back to check out the stuff on the company's servers. They were both probably playing some of the games downloaded from Gaia's memory banks.

"This has been a very tiring day." Xander said wearily as he leaned back on the soft leather and closed his eyes.

_"Then you should try to get some rest."_ Kyubi advised in his head.

"It's weekend tomorrow, so I could sleep in if I wanted to. Don't worry about me." Xander said with a sigh as he reached into his pocket to take out a matchbox. "I've better continue 'Seeing' the essence of the replicator if we want to have a working version in a few weeks time."

_"Well, it's probably true that the sooner you morph the replicator, the better it will be for everyone." _Kyubi admitted. _"But you've been spending so much time morphing stuff for the others to use that you've not much time left for seals or ninja studies. Add on to that, now you've to teach the others what you know, and you don't have time for anything."_

"Yes, that's why I am thinking it's best if we can get Anko and Shikamaru out of the Halloween dimension as soon as possible. They could take over the ninja lessons, and Anko might even be able to take over for me in the basic seal studies." Xander confided to the Kyubi.

"I've told Rommie about releasing Anko and Shikamaru. Rommie had said that she would ask the droids to begin building several buildings we can use for houses on the airstrip. By her estimate, it should take only a few weeks if I could morph more androids to help out. That is of course provided we can get the needed building materials. She had suggested converting some of the empty hangars into living quarters temporarily if we really needed to get them out straight away."

_"I know, I heard her when she said that. You forgot, I am a part of you now. Anyway, the decision is up to you."_ Kyubi said understandingly. _"So what are you going to do?"_

"Well, that's a no brainer. I am getting Shikamaru and Anko out as soon as possible." Xander said with a sigh. "I'll just need to discuss about this in more details with Rommie and Giles tomorrow. I'll also need to order some furniture and convert one of the hangars into living quarters first."

_"That's good to hear." _Kyubi remarked softly as if reminiscing of old times. _"I also knew of Shikamaru during my time in Naruto's body, and the fact that Anko saved my container's life is a debt I feel inclined to repay to her now that I have the chance. But at the moment, let me help you with deciphering the essence of the replicator."_

"Thanks fox, I know I can count on you." Xander said with a grin as he opened his mind to the Kyubi. Together they stretched out their chakra and spread it over the tiny replicator lying in the matchbox. Layer by layer, they began to unrevealed the essences of the replicator.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Sunnydale. 0530hr_

"Are you sure we're doing the right thing?" Daniel asked as Carter drove the car past the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign. "Maybe we should have called General Hammond personally instead of leaving just a message for him."

"The airman said General Hammond took the day off to attend his grandchildren's graduation Daniel. That's a family event. The General got too few family time as it is, let him enjoy his free day without any crisis popping up for him." Jack said from his seat beside Carter. "I'm sure we can handle a little bit of investigative work on our own. If we find out that we really need the big guns, we can always call the General directly and request for more help. We're on Earth anyway, not off planet, a phone call is just what it would take."

"If worse comes to worse, we could always contact the soldiers at the desert outpost." Carter said from behind the wheel as she droved them through the quiet morning streets of Sunnydale. "Captain Jones, the one that's in charge of the desert outpost wasn't very happy about us going off on an investigation trip on our own."

"He did seem most unhappy when we drove away." Teal'c added from the backseat beside Daniel.

"Well, there's nothing we could do." Jack said with a shrug. "His security clearance wasn't high enough for us to tell him about the aliens. We're going to have to leave him and his men behind if we are to carry out our investigation."

"So what are we going to do now that we're in Sunnydale?" Daniel asked exasperatedly from the back seat. "Do we have an actual plan or are we just rushing into the thick of things blindly as usual?"

"We do have a plan!" Jack said sounding highly offended. "It's not my fault that most of our plans don't survive first contact. Anyway, we're on Earth, and the Mayor is only one alien. We just need to find out what he's doing here and if there are more of them. What's the worst that could possibly happen?"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Andromeda Inc. Hangar 1, 1030hr_

Cordelia hummed along with the music as she seated herself in front of one of the computer consoles. She flipped through the catalogue that's filled with thousands of dresses and clothing suitable for Earth in this current century. Already, she was book marking those fashion designs that she felt could revolutionize the current fashion trends. There were a few designs that she was thinking of keeping for herself as well.

"Do you wish me to tag this Miss Chase?" The computer AI Harper inquired politely through the speakers.

Cordelia paused, considering the design before her and then gave a nod. "Hand this design over to the droids and have them fabricate a copy of the dress. Add this to the collection of things to do."

"Alright, Miss Chase." Harper said as the design on screen faded away and changed to a new one.

Cordelia looked at the new design with a critical eye before sending it to the awaiting pile. So engrossed was she in browsing through the design that she did not notice Buffy coming into the hangar until the Slayer bumped into her chair.

"Hey watch it." Cordelia muttered irritably, jousted from her concentration.

"Sorry." Buffy apologized, pausing in front of Cordelia's console. She turned to Cordelia looking at her in surprise. "You've been here all morning looking through fashion catalogues?"

"I'm working." Cordelia said impatiently. "I'm looking through the designs to see which are marketable."

"Oh… well, good luck." Buffy said moving away. "I'm going to take a look at their music catalogue. Maybe I can bundle up the music and sell them to some music companies."

Cordelia sighed as she got up and stretch her wearily limbs. Now that her concentration was broken, she felt like taking a break. Walking to the pantry, she took a quick look around the HQ. Rommie was at one corner of the room fiddling with some mechanic stuff, while Andrew was hovering at her side as he watches her assemble the machine. Jonathon was lying on the coach fast asleep. Buffy had taken a seat at one of the computer consoles, and Cordelia saw with surprise that Willow had arrived as well, stacking up the bookshelves with books from the many boxes in the HQ.

As she filled a glass of water for herself, she saw Xander jogging into the HQ, drenched in sweat. Cordelia raised an eyebrow curiously, Xander never did seem like the exercising kind of person, but she guessed things had changed since Halloween night. Deciding to see what Rommie and Andrew were up to, Cordelia walked towards them to take a closer look.

"That's the energy generator you were talking about?" Cordelia asked Rommie curiously as she approaches them.

"Yeah it's real cool!" Andrew said excitedly. "Rommie's teaching me all sorts of things."

"You are a good student, though the X-Men powers of Forge might have a hand in helping you pick up all these knowledge of advance technologies so fast." Rommie commented. She looked pass Cordelia with an astonished expression as amusement crept into her voice. "How did Xander do that?"

Cordelia and Andrew turned and gaped as they saw a half naked blond girl standing next to the sofa.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

at Andromeda Inc. Hangar 1, 1030hr

Xander wiped the sweat off his face as he jogged into Hangar 1. He had just finished his morning exercise of 100 push ups, 100 sit ups, as well as floating leaves for one hour which could help to enlarge his chakra reserves and to give him more control over his chakra. Over the past few weeks, his devoted training had bear fruit as his chakra reserves tripled what it used to be. Right now the amount of chakra in his body could be considered on par with some of the more average student ninjas during Naruto's time in the ninja academy.

It was also why he was considering trying out Naruto's trademark technique as he ended his morning exercise. He had been practicing the handseals for almost half a month now, and he felt that he could do them in his sleep.

_"Remember, with the amount of chakra you have, you can only maintain that technique for one hour."_ The Kyubi warned in his head. _"Don't overstretch yourself."_

"Don't worry, I am just going to try it for a while." Xander said with a grin as he made the handseals. "If I can do this technique, it will prove that my chakra control has advanced enough to start on the other ninja skills. NARUTO'S SEXY TECHNIQUE!"

Xander pushed his chakra outwards as he formed the handseals. A billow of smoke surrounded him. As the smoke cleared, Xander looked down at himself with a grin as he found himself with a pair of breasts, shapely body and long legs, all covered by only a skimpy two piece swimsuit.

"This is so cool! I could get to like this." Xander said, his voice coming out in a husky female tone as he began feeling his breasts.

"Xander…" Buffy's voice suddenly sounded behind him. Xander turned to see Buffy smiling sweetly at him even as a twitch began to develop on her left eyelid. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING! YOU PERVERT!"

Xander winced at the shout from Buffy and had no time to react as Buffy swung a fist into his face.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Andromeda Inc. Hangar 1, 1045hr_

Willow looked on with a blush on her face as Buffy sent the half naked, girl shaped Xander flying across the room. Xander changed back to his fully clothed boy self as he hit the ground roughly with a groan. Willow's mind kept flashing back to the sight of female Xander's shapely body, and her face turned beet red.

"Xander." Cordelia grounded out from the side as she began stalking towards Xander even as Buffy was making her way towards him angrily. "You are in deep shit."

"Come on girls, it's just a joke." Xander protested weakly as he got up and began backing away from an angry Buffy and Cordelia. "That's Naruto's favorite technique. I was just testing if I have enough chakra control to begin doing the basic ninja skills."

"And you couldn't have picked something else to begin your first ninja skills with?" Cordelia said through gritted teeth. "You're a pervert and you're going down hard."

Willow watched as Buffy and Cordelia began to verbally tear into Xander, with Buffy giving Xander the occasional rough shake to bring the point across to him that under no circumstances was he to ever use that technique again.

"I thought that he looked quite nice." Jonathon confined in Willow as he got off the couch beside the bookshelves. He blushed as he looked down at the floor. "I mean Xander's girl self look very pretty."

"Yeah it's very…" Willow nodded before she could stop herself. A look of panic crossed her face as she began scolding herself. "Argh! Willow what are you thinking? You must think good and pure thoughts! This is Xander you're thinking about!"

Willow shook her head to get the image out of her mind and then gave a resigned sigh as she finally agreed with Jonathon. "But he looked nice as a girl though, even I have to admit that."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Halloween dimension, 1050hr_

A pulse of energy erupted from the dark armoured figure of Darth Vader. Anakin Skywalker gasped as he freed himself from the stasis he was trapped in. He never noticed the force pulse washing over the figure in green armour a few steps behind him. Anakin took stock of his surroundings and grimaced. A strange walled up energy of some sort laid all around him, stagnant. His force senses were being scrambled by this unknown energy force and the few strands of the Force trapped in this space was escaping from him as the Force seemed to be trying to shy away from this strange energy.

Anakin looked around calmly, taking stock of his surroundings. It was true that he was unnerved by what his Force senses were telling him, but he had been trained as a Jedi, spent years as a Sith, a user of the dark side of the Force, before finding redemption and spending the rest of the decades as a Force ghost. Compared to the time when he led a fleet of starships to conquer planets in the name of the Empire, being stuck in what seemed to be a small room of some sort ranked very low on the threat meter.

Of course, the room seemed to be some kind of stasis trap as it was clustered with piles of objects ranging from clothes, swords, blasters, gems, all floating in mid air. Whichever civilization had created this trap must have been highly advanced, he doubted any of the race in his world could create a stasis field that occupied such a large area.

He was about to move closer to a pile of blaster weapons to investigate when someone coughed behind him. Anakin whirled around, his lightsaber unhooking itself from his belt as he used what little amount of the Force that was present in this room to propel the lightsaber into his hands. A red beam of light flashed out of the hilt of the lightsaber as he turned to face the armoured warrior of some sort behind him.

"Excuse me." A man's gravel voice sounded from the armour. "But do you happen to know where this is?"

"I am afraid that I am not the right person to ask." Anakin said slowly as he observed the man, stretching his Force senses towards the armoured figure. The strange energy had masked the man's presence from him and Anakin frowned at the thought that he couldn't rely on the Force while he was confined in this room.

With his Force senses, Anakin was able to sense the presence of a male with cybernetic implants inside the armour. There did not seemed to be any malevolent feeling of any sort around the armoured figure so Anakin was willing to let his guard down a bit though he continued to keep a careful eye on the armoured figure.

"I had just freed myself a few minutes ago and was about to investigate the surrounding." Not for the first time since he woke up, Anakin gave thanks that his new body did not seem to rely on a respirator for his continual survival. In fact, from what he could sense from the force, the body he was currently in was young and in good health. His voice came out from his helmet without the sound of harsh breathing that was the trademark of his old Darth Vader self.

"I see. I have no idea how I came to be here as well. When I came to my senses a minute ago, I was already standing right behind you. But perhaps we could work together for the time being to find a way out." The armoured man offered after a pause.

"I have no problems with that. I am Anakin Skywalker." Anakin said, offering his name.

"You may call me John… John-117." The man said, shaking Anakin's hand.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**Author's Notes:**  
This wasn't exactly how I envisioned this chapter to end. But as usual, I've written too much, and my creativity's been running a bit dry trying to fit a lot of stuff in one chapter. So there, the story will continue in the next chapter, when I've time to get to it.

A point of note, the carebears wouldn't be appearing anytime soon, they are meant as a side joke because I could just see them going up to a vampire and trying to teach them all about "love" and "kindness"… some how, I don't think vampires will really like it. So yes, they are meant to be crack snippets. You don't really think I can write a serious Btvs crossover with Carebears do you?

_Powers gained in this chapter:_

1)Angel had eaten a Devil's Fruit from the One Piece Manga/Anime.  
2)Cordelia had gotten a ring of plant manipulation and a ring of teleportation. (They are a subtle nod to the Dungeons and Dragons and Gurps pen and paper games)  
3)Jenny had gotten a Star Trek Phaser and a ring of Lightning  
4)Xander had at last mastered Naruto's Sexy Technique, with more of Naruto's Manga and Anime skills on the way.


	9. Chapter 9

**9. Chapter Nine: Conspiracies**

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**Summary:** One Halloween Night changed everything for Xander. Agreeing to a contract with the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon for power, he unknowingly unleashed great evils to the world... changing everything for the Scooby Gang. Buffy / Naruto / Andromeda / Starwars / Multiple Crossovers

**Crossover:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters, objects or plots from  
Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, Andromeda TV series, Star Wars, Stargate SG-1 TV sefries, Casper the friendly ghost, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Ghostbusters, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VI (Final Fantasy III in North America), X-Men, Primeval TV series, Final Fantasy X-2, Highlander, Smallville TV series, Star Ocean Video Game series, Gundam Manga and Anime series, Xenosaga Video Game series, Naruto Manga and Anime series, Dungeons and Dragons, Carebears, Pinky and the Brain, Star Trek, Gurps, One Piece Manga

**Book Title:** Master of the Forbidden Seals

**Author:** Wraithrune

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**Chapter 9: Conspiracies**

_"Junior, we've an assignment for you. How would you like a new school environment in Sunnydale?"  
~ Adult Jack O'Neill to Mini-Jack (Clone)_

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_Desert outpost, 1030hr _

"What's the location of the specialist team?" Captain Jones asked as he stepped into the command centre of the desert outpost. He might have been unhappy at not being told where the special team assigned by the president was going, but he had a few tricks up his sleeves. Before the four men team had left, he had one of his man plant a tracking device on the car that the team was driving. After all this whole mission was his responsibility, if any shit hits the fan, he's the one answerable for it.

"The GPS currently states their location at somewhere in L.A. It seems that they've been stopping at quite a few places." The soldier manning the device reported. "Except for the time period between 0530hrs and 0600hrs when the team was in Sunnydale, much of the subsequent time was spent on the road to L.A and its surrounding areas."

"It's a good thing that they spent so little time at that place. I nearly ordered an extraction team to pull them out." Captain Jones grunted. "Mayor Wilkins is the U.S government's only white magic user contact. He's also our only supplier of sub-terrestrials for experimentation and the only one currently able to keep the demons in check in that accursed town. If that specialist team stirs up trouble in that place, there will be hell to pay. The government has a lot of sensitive deals going on with the Mayor."

"Well they are all in L.A right now, so I doubt they could cause any trouble in Sunnydale." The soldier reported, looking at the readings from the tracking device. "Though it's weird, ever since they've reached L.A from the highway, they've been stopping at many places for just a few minutes. I wonder what they are doing."

"I am only glad that they are far from Sunnydale. Keep me informed if anything urgent came up." Captain Jones said as he made his way out of the command centre. There was still a pile of reports on his desk that needs reading.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Angel's Mansion, 1035hr_

Angel sat on his bed in the darkened shade of his mansion. He was brooding as he usually did when he is thinking about something troubling him. Right now his worry was the warmth that was coursing through his body, keeping him awake even though he should be asleep by this time normally.

"…urpped." Angel hiccupped unwillingly as a small flicker of flame escaped from his lips.

Things had gone south after he had eaten the damn fruit in the Halloween dimension. The changes to his undead body had been instant. The fiery warmth flowing through his body was pounding in a way akin to a heartbeat, even though technically his heart was not beating. There was also the issue of spontaneously sprouting out flames from his lips every few minutes before Xander had found a way to seal this new ability to a manageable level at every few hours.

He had been afraid to sleep for fear of burning himself or the mansion down if he hiccups any stray flames in his dreams. That was why he was currently contemplating an experiment. If it was successful, he would probably be sleeping on the cold stone floor for the day where there's nothing for him to accidentally burn.

Angel frowned as he concentrated, trying to force out a flicker of flame. Something stirred in the fires burning within him as flames escaped from his lips at a steady pace. His hands shaking, Angel extended the tip of his finger in the path of the fire he was breathing out.

As heat pooled around his finger, Angel feared for a moment that his finger would disintegrate. After all vampires were well known for being vulnerable to intense fire. But except for the warmth spreading around his finger at a tolerable level, nothing else occurred.

Angel moved his whole palm into the path of fire this time round, taking care to breathe out at a steady pace. The fires brushed against his palm in a gentle caress before burning the air around it. Angel sighed, as he had suspected, his new fire breathing ability had made him immune to fire itself. At least it meant he could get some sleep on the floor without fear of setting himself aflame.

Angel began clearing an open space in the middle of his bedroom where he could lay down when an incredulous thought struck him. An impossibility, yet with the stuff that had already happened to him, not something he could easily discount without testing the nagging thought out.

Walking out of his bedroom, crossing his heavily curtain draped living room and gently opening the front door to let in the deadly rays of the morning sunlight, Angel looked at the rays of light in a contemplating manner before sticking his hand into its path with grim determination. He tensed… but nothing happened, no burning or scorching as he moved his fingers in the sunlight.

With grim anticipation, Angel opened the door wider, letting in more light to encompass more of his body. There was no smoking of his undead flesh or even the pain that came from standing in the path of the morning sun. Angel took an experimental step forward, then another, as he walked out onto his porch.

Looking up into the clear blue morning sky, a trickle of something wet ran down his face. More tears trickled out as Angel stared entranced at the sight of the sun… for the first time in a hundred years.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_Sunnydale Town Council, 1100hr_

Cloaked and lying on the window still outside the Mayor's office. Gaia continued her surveillance of the Mayor diligently through her deep space sensors. Every verbal conversation he had with someone else was recorded. Not that a lot of staff dared to disturb the Mayor in the early hours of the morning. The only ones that entered the room beside the Mayor himself were the Deputy Mayor and the cleaning lady.

She had been tailing the Mayor since yesterday evening and had so far recorded several conversations that might prove problematic for Rommie's group. The Mayor had ordered the Deputy Mayor to lead an investigation into Giles, Rommie and Xander's newly set up company. Apparently it seems that the Mayor had decided that the new group represents a threat.

As per Rommie's instructions, unless the matter was urgent, Gaia was instructed to store her surveillance data in her database to report to Rommie when she returned. In case Gaia stumbled upon any life threatening or end of the world matter, she was instructed to hack into any local internet network to send an encrypted data packet to Harper's digital location.

The optimal scenario was that she would return back to HQ around mid afternoon with her findings, by which time Leia should have finished producing the first fleet of Starspies tailored for surveillance purposes meant for Mayor Wilkin. Currently, though she had uncovered quite a lot of dirt on the Mayor, there was nothing particularly urgent for her to make a direct report.

So far, she had found out that the Mayor employed several vampires to guard his mansion. The windows of the mansion itself were tinted, blocking out the sunlight thus making it the perfect vampire nest. Gaia had also picked out several human body parts floating in several jars around the mansion as well as a lot of organic samples which Gaia highly suspect were spell components based on the information she had downloaded from this world's internet.

Hacking into the Mayor's personal computer also unravelled a whole chunk of personal contacts and data that the Mayor had with several members of the U.S government. Apparently disposing of the Mayor was not going to be an easy matter especially with all those high level contacts that he had. It would also explain why the graphic novels that had outlined the events in Sunnydale had only mentioned government intervention after the Mayor's death.

Gaia gave a digital equivalent of a sigh as she spread her senses to cover a much wider area. The Mayor had actually spent the past few hours listening to music while relaxing in his office and Gaia was frankly bored out of her mind. Several nano-seconds passed as she eavesdropped on several conversations taking place around her.

"_Look at this the latest issue of Glamour…"_

"_Did you watch the last episode of Dawnson Creek yesterday…"_

"_Can you see the Mayor's office, Daniel?"_

"_Yeah I can see his head, seems like he's sitting near the window…"_

Gaia pause her area wide scan as the last conversation caught her interest. Instantly she narrowed down the location of the sound waves to a car parked some distance opposite the Sunnydale Town Council, right across the Mayor's office.

"_Good, that means Jack and Teal'c can slip into the mansion unhindered."_ A woman's voice said.

"_Hopefully they wouldn't run into any trouble. You know Carter, do you think there are any more tracking devices in the car?" _This time a male voice, probably the man Daniel asked.

"_Jack did a thorough sweep of the car after he found the first device, it should be safe now."_ The woman, Carter said in a troubled voice. _"Though when we get back, Jack's going to have some harsh words for the Captain. What he did was a breech of personal privacy. Not to mention he has no right to plant any tracking device to observe us."_

"_What did Jack do with the device he found anyway? Dump it in the trash?"_ Daniel asked in a wondering tone of voice.

"_It would be too suspicious if the tracking device remains stationary for too long, I think Jack stuck it to a bus near the parking lot. Captain Jones and his men are probably tracking the routes of the bus right now." _Carter replied.

"_Which will lead them on a wild goose chase, but then they deserve it." _Daniel chuckled before continuing. _"You know, from here, the Mayor doesn't really look like an alien. He's not even a Goa'uld, his eyes aren't all glowly like."_

"_There's more than the Goa'ulds in this universe Daniel, you know that. Just because we're up against them most of the time doesn't mean every alien species we met are from that race." _Carter said amusedly. _"Anyway, even if he's not an alien, he might be a human who have found some higher technology that can extend his life, like the sarcophagus. We need to find proof of that before calling Stargate Command."_

"_I know Carter, it's just that my gut feeling is telling me he's a human."_ Daniel said. _"I guess we'll have to see what Jack and Teal'c uncovered at the Mayor's mansion."_

Gaia paused in her recording of the conversation as she pondered this new development. She was quite positive that the population on this version of Earth has no contact with any alien races, what she had recorded right now would make for an interesting report to Rommie and the others.

But then based on the couple's conversation, two of their friends were currently attempting to infiltrate the Mayor's mansion which was guarded by a few vampires. Two humans most probably without knowledge of the supernatural up against a few vampires would probably end badly. Gaia paused for a nano-second as she considered what she would do next.

If she was a combat ship A.I. from her universe, she would probably be programmed to follow her mission parameters without fail or question. But she was a seeder, a colony ship. A.I.s controlling such ships tends to be more flexible in their programming. Gaia weighted her current mission and the two human lives at stake, then without any hesitation, she hacked into the Mayor's computer, piggy-backing the electronic signals to access the internet of this world. As she successfully connected to the internet, she sent an encrypted packet of data to Harper's internet location, hopefully the new A.I. would be able to inform Rommie in time…

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Andromeda Inc. Hangar 1, 1110hr_

Xander sighed blissfully as the bruises that Buffy had given him began to heal rapidly. After Buffy and Cordelia had stormed off, each satisfied that they had grounded the command of not using Naruto's trademark transformation technique in front of them anymore, Xander had retreated to the sofa where he had quickly put on Wolverine's gloves to accelerate his healing.

"So." Jonathon said as he leaned forward to where Xander was slumped on the sofa. Willow was beside Jonathon, an obvious look of question on her face. "Er… that technique looks interesting, what is it called?"

"It's a transformation technique." Xander said with a grin at his two attentive audience who did not seem intent on pummelling for what he did just now. "Basically a ninja is taught certain handseals which are the sequence of how their inner chakra is being mould, allowing them to transform into whatever physical shape or object that they set their minds on. The technique I did just now was Naruto's own variation of the transformation technique, he basically used it as a distraction against male opponents."

"So you actually transform yourself physically? That is so cool!" Jonathon said as his eyes light up at the thought of what he could use the technique for. "You're like Mystique!"

"What's a Mystique?" Willow asked with a frown, confused as to where the conversation was going.

"Mystique is a mutant from the X-men comics with the ability to shape shift." Xander explained, turning to Willow. "That's what the transformation technique does basically. The transformation will dispel if whatever you're transforming into got hurt, but more experienced ninjas are able to withstand a lot more physical damage before their transformations are destroyed. Unfortunately I don't have that much control yet."

"When will we learn how to do that?" Jonathon asked excitedly. "It will be awesome to have real power that is actually learnt through hard work instead of gotten through the Halloween costumes."

"Transformation requires a certain amount of chakra and chakra control. All of you probably have enough chakra currently to attempt the technique, but most of you lack the control. Ms Calendar and Giles however are experienced in magic, so their chakra control might be better." Xander said in a pondering tone of voice. "Basically I'll have to see the group's progress before deciding to teach you guys how to transform, since it will be easier for me to teach everyone in one go."

"I'll work hard!" Jonathon said enthusiastically. "This will be better than plastic surgery."

Willow grinned at Jonathon's excited look. "It does sound interesting, imagine the possibilities that we could use that technique for!"

Xander was about to say something when a male voice broadcasted loudly from the speakers connected to the computer terminals.

"Rommie, I've just received an incoming data packet from Gaia. Sending to you via the wireless connection, please receive." Harper's voice called over the speakers.

From her position near Andrew, Rommie straightened with a frown, turning to face the direction of the terminal. A few seconds passed before Rommie suddenly turned to face everyone in the hangar, looking first to Cordelia's direction then Xander's.

"Cordelia, Buffy, Xander and Andrew! Gear yourself up! We've got trouble." Rommie barked out in a firm voice, her facial expression hard and unforgiving. "I'll explain on the way, but we've got two humans about to be attacked by a group of vampires. Cordelia, I'll need you to teleport us to the Mayor's mansion. Willow and Jonathon, stay here and man the HQ, we should be able to handle the vampires with this group, Gaia reported that there should be at least nine vampires in the mansion."

"I need to picture the location and an estimated distance of the mansion from here to there before I can teleport us there!" Cordelia protested as she fingered the two magical rings on her fingers. "And I've never been to or even near the Mayor's mansion before!"

"Harper! Get us a picture of the Mayor's mansion now! Open it at the terminal that Cordelia's currently at! Send Cordelia an estimated distance she need to teleport as well." Rommie shouted as she strolled to the table where she had left her High Guard Force Lance. "Everyone else, gear up and move to Cordelia's side, we need to reach the Mayor's manor before those two humans are killed! Harper contact Gaia, inform her to keep an eye on the Mayor… and this other party that she mentioned."

"Understood Rommie." Harper said over the speakers as everyone stirred into action.

Xander frowned as he moved in stride with Rommie to reach where Cordelia was standing. Buffy had already readied her sword and stood in position beside Cordelia while Andrew was retrieving his Unicorn magicite from his bag near the sofa area.

"We should probably get some lockers so everyone can put their things in one spot." Xander commented hurriedly as he turned to Rommie. "But what happened? Vampires in the Mayor's mansion and two humans going to get killed?"

"Rescue first and I'll explain later." Rommie said grimly. "Suffice it to say Gaia stumbled upon some information which I'll reveal to everyone after this mission is over. Do you have your Heart ring?"

"Yeah I've got it." Xander said taking the ring out of his pocket. "I've tried the ring's powers few times, but all I can gather from people around me are their surface thoughts and emotions, not really very useful unless you're playing poker games."

"I may have a use for it." Rommie said briskly. "Put it on and follow me."

There was some static before Harper's voice came over the speakers.

"Ms Cordelia, I've found several pictures of the Mayor's house and his grounds from the internet. Which do you wish me to enlarge?" Harper said just as Rommie and Xander walked up, standing beside Cordelia and Buffy. Snapshots of the various pictures filled the computer monitor.

"Are there any pictures showing the doors to the mansion itself? Or even within the mansion?" Rommie ordered, cutting in before Cordelia has a chance to speak.

"I do have one showing the dinning room of the mansion during one of the Mayor's socialite event." Harper replied as a large picture of what looks to be a lushly decorated dining room filled with high end party goers covering the screen.

Cordelia gave the picture a look before nodding. "Alright, I've got it. But a warning first, I've never tried teleporting to a distance so far yet. If anything bad happens, it's not my fault."

"Just give it your best shot." Rommie said with a sigh. "You're our best hope for getting there in time."

"Alright then." Cordelia said with a shrug, before turning to the direction Andrew was at with a frown. "Do we really have to bring him along? He's slowing us down."

"His current healing abilities are anthemia to the undead, he'll be our backup. Also, we may need him in case anyone's injured." Rommie said as Andrew starting running towards them.

"I'm here! I... huff… here!" Andrew panted as he reached them.

Cordelia didn't bother with a reply as she tapped into the magical charges of the opal ring of Teleportation. A glow of light surrounded everyone and they vanished from HQ, using up one of the ring's magical charges.

Willow and Jonathon who were looking from their position at the sofa turned towards each other.

"So what shall we do now?" Willow asked as she looked around the suddenly empty HQ.

"Maybe we should call Giles and the others. Rommie did say she'll explain everything after they rescue the two victims." Johnathon suggested tentatively. "That means everyone needs to be here."

"That sounds like a good idea." Willow said making a bee line towards the telephone her forehead frowned in worry. "Giles will know what to do in this situation."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Giles' Apartment, 1110hr_

The door bell rang… and rang and rang. Giles groaned and rolled under the bed sheets, fumbling for his glasses at the side table as he tried to see the time. The digital clock read eleven in the morning, he had gotten back home quite late yesterday. Who could be at his door right now?

The door bell rang again, giving Giles a headache.

"Coming!" Giles called out loudly as he began to dress himself, stifling a yawn.

Stumbling out of his room, down the stairs and crossing the living room, Giles opened the door with a sigh.

"Who is it…" Giles began but trailed off at the sight in front of him, his mouth gaping widely.

He stuck his head out to see the sky, wincing at the morning glare. Yup, the sun seems to be functioning alright. Then he looked at the figure standing sheepishly in front of him.

"Oh bummer." Giles said looking blankly at Angel who was scratching his head.

"We need to talk." Angel began tentatively. "I think we have a potential problem."

Giles opened his mouth to reply when the phone began ringing inside the house.

"Just come inside while I get the call." Giles said with a sigh as he motioned the now sun resistant vampire into his house.

Walking into the house, he picked up the phone, already feeling a headache building up in his head as he watched Angel shuffled in.

"Giles?" Willow's voice sounded breathlessly over the phone. "I think we have a problem…"

Giles groaned silently, as he took a calming breath.

"Alright Willow, tell me what has happened…"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Mayor's Mansion, 1115hr_

Jack lowered the binoculars as he turned towards Teal'c. The two of them had scaled the walls surrounding the Mayor's mansion and its lawn twenty minutes earlier and had been observing the manor in the distance for any signs of guards or servants. So far they've not seen anyone wandering outside the mansion, though it's hard to tell if anyone's in the building itself as all the windows were tinted black.

From what Carter had found during her detailed search for information about the Mayor on the internet, the Mayor was a well known Sunnydale bachelor who lives alone and hires a cleaning crew to clean the mansion once a week. Right now there should be no one left in the mansion after he had left for work in the morning. So far Carter's information had proven accurate, there were no signs of life on the mansion grounds itself. Everything was deathly quiet.

"Alright we're moving in." Jack said in a hushed whisper to Teal'c who was squatted down beside him.

Teal'c nodded impassively. "Understood O'Neil, I'll cover your back."

Jack stood up and after checking to make sure the coast was clear, began moving stealthily and quickly across the lawn, quickly flattening himself against the walls of the mansion. Checking the corner of the building to make sure no one's there, he motioned to Teal'c who was still hidden behind the bushes. The large dark skinned man quickly crossed the distance at Jack's signal, reaching Jack's side without making a sound.

Once assured that Teal'c was beside him, Jack began slowly inching along the wall to reach the back of the house. Rounding the corner, they stopped at the back door leading into the mansion. Quickly Jack slipped on a pair of gloves before testing the knob of the door. The door opened easily, leading into what seemed to be a large and neatly ordered kitchen.

Jack frowned as he turned to look at Teal'c. "This is too easy. He's the Mayor of the town for God's sake, there should have been a security system guarding the house."

"Unless there's nothing to steal in this house." Teal'c observed. "Or perhaps there's a security system guarding this place, just not noticeable… or alien in nature."

Jack stuck his head into the kitchen and looked around. There was no sign of anyone or any possible security devices.

"I got a bad feeling about this, ready your weapon." Jack said as he drew out his gun, wishing as he did that he was able to gain access to Stargate Command's more advanced weaponry while they were on Earth.

Teal'c drew his own gun. As Jack began to move in, Teal'c followed closely behind. He was careful to leave the back door slightly ajar in case they need to make a quick escape.

The silence in the mansion was oppressive, the dim lighting caused by the tinted windows cast a pall in the already gloomy atmosphere. Nothing in the kitchen seemed out of the ordinary, though the door leading to the cellar seemed to be locked from the other side, no amount of pulling the handle of the cellar door could make it open.

"Strange." Jack said as he observed the door, looking around to see if there were any secret levers to open the door.

"It does seem unusual to create a door that locks from the other side." Teal'c commented as he helped to look for any hidden controls.

After a while of searching and finding nothing, Jack gave the door one last distrusting look before motioning Teal'c to follow him out of the kitchen to explore the rest of the mansion. There'll be time enough to find out what's the mystery behind the cellar door later.

Daniel and Carter were currently on the look out for the Mayor at City Hall, they would call if there's any sign that the Mayor would return early, and since it seems that Carter's information about no one else living in the mansion was accurate, they wouldn't have to worry about being discovered. Though Jack still remained on the lookout for trouble, something about this place just seemed wrong to him.

Down in the cellars, several creatures began to stir in their sleep.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Halloween dimension, 1120hr_

Closed to half an hour of wondering around the small room and Anakin was forced to conclude one thing.

"We're boxed in." Anakin said with a sign as he reached an armoured hand to feel the transparent and slightly cloudy walls of the sides of the room. "The walls are some kind of energy field with no visible exit."

"Neither could I find any opening in my search." John concluded from the other end of the room before waving to the three costumes clad figures standing beside him. "We're also not the only humans trapped within it, which makes me wonder what this place is used for."

"That's true. I've spotted a few other humans trapped in the corners of the room, as well as the weird mix of high technology. Swords, armours and high tech blasters all within the same room made for a very peculiar mix." Anakin said with a frown behind his armour. "Even if in theory that this place was created to contain prisoners, I highly doubt that whoever built it would place powerful weapons in it as well. In fact, from a logical point of view, this place seemed more like a storeroom with the humans trapped within it as an afterthought."

John turned around surprisingly quick in his green armour to look at the pile of blasters and high tech weaponries that Anakin was pointing to before giving a nod.

"That's true, the amount of technologies and other items far outweigh the number of living creatures trapped within here." John said in agreement.

"Perhaps I should take a closer look at the others trapped with us." Anakin said walking closer to the three figures that John was standing beside. One was a green costume clad male with a well crafted metal bow in his hands and a mask hiding half his face. The other was a young girl with a wave of dark hair and an older burly man standing besides her. "Maybe if I can figure out how they are trapped here, we can find an alternative route out of this place."

John stepped aside as Anakin closed in on the three figures, observing him from the side quietly. Anakin paid him no mind as John had in a way proven that he would keep his promise to co-operate. They had spent the past half hour working together to find a way out, which already built up some measure of trust between them. Reaching out with the Force, Anakin began to spread out tendrils of Force energies into the three figures.

He frowned as he encountered the same strange energies that stifled the air in the room trapped within their living bodies. Whatever this strange energy was, it was quite possible part of the reason why they were all trapped here.

"I am going to try something. Be prepared in case something happens." Anakin warned John who immediately shifted into combat position, unhooking what looks like a small blaster from the side of his armour.

"What should I be looking for?" John asked cautiously.

"Anything, in case whatever I did trip an alarm announcing our presence to whoever has trapped us in." Anakin said before turning all his focus to the three figures in front of him. John nodded, stepping back as he surveyed the environment around them with a critical eye.

Concentrating, Anakin sent out a strong surge of Force energies into the bodies of the three humans, trying to force out the strange pool of energies contained within them. As the foreign energies left their bodies, Anakin could feel something akin to a snapping sound echoing around the three figures as the three figures came to life. Anakin was surprised by what happened next.

The seemingly weaponless burly man suddenly leap at him with a growl, steel claws sprouting at of the back of his bare hands as he tried to take a swipe at him. The claws actually managed to sink into the tough Darth Vader armour before John lurged forward with a punch, sending the man flying back. The flying body of the man knocked over the young girl who was watching them in shock.

"Ar..gh.." The girl cried out as she went down under the weight of the man.

"Who are you people?" The masked green clad man shouted firmly as he notched an arrow into his bow, aiming at Anakin and John.

It didn't seem much of a threat to the armoured figures of Anakin and John, but after what the other man had done to his armour with his claws, Anakin was prepared to treat the bow and arrow as a possible threat. Whoever these people were, it's obvious that they were more than what they originally seem.

"Are you alright?" The girl asked the injured man worriedly as she crawled out from under him. She eyed Anakin and John with an weary look as though she was going to take flight at the slightest threat from them.

"A normal human would be badly bruised and possibiliy incapicitated from just one punch from me." John noted from the side with a faint note of surprise in his voice as he looked at the man who was struggling to get up.

"Well it seems that he is alright." Anakin said, wondering what secrets these three newly freed humans possessed. "I am Anakin Skywalker and this is my companion John. We mean you no harm. In fact we're the ones that freed you from your prison."

"Prison?" The green masked man asked carefully even as the burly man on the floor gave a grunt as he tried to prop himself up, glaring at John and Anakin the whole time.

"Yes, look around you." Anakin said waving at the room around them. "The three of you were contained in a stasis trap, as we were before we freed ourselves and then freed you."

"A stasis trap?" The man in green asked careful as the three newly awaken humans looked around them with various degree of shock. The girl looked like she was hyperventilating as she took in the numerous items frozen in mid air and the other unmoving human figures at the far corners of the room.

"Even if you free us, I doubt you did it out of good will." The burly man said cynically as he got to his feet, his wound seemingly healed as he stretched his arms experimentally. The only trace of what had happened was his roughened up clothing. "Who are you people and where are we?"

"I am afraid I have no idea where we are. As I said, the two of us are also fellow prisoners here." Anakin explained simply. "I free you because I was trying to find out how the stasis trap works, hoping that it would lead me to a way out of this place. I didn't gain much answer, but since you three are free now, why don't we work together to find a way out? We're boxed in on all sides by a strange energy field which John and I are currently unable to find an opening. If we work together, our chances of getting out should be higher."

The burly man snorted. "I work best alone, and I don't trust people whose faces I can't even see. How do I even know if you're even human?"

Anakin nodded as he reached up to remove his helmet, taking it off. He looked at the burly man evenly. Beside him John removed his helmet as well, revealing a face that seemed calm and in control. If not for his pasty white complexion, he would have looked like an average guy on the streets, albeit a more commanding one.

"As you can see we're humans as well." Anakin said when John did not say anything. "Will you agree to work together? I think it is best if we first escape from here before trying to figure out what is going on, since I doubt any answers could be found here."

"I am agreeable to it." The man in green said as he stepped forward offering his hand. "I am known as the Green Arrow."

"A code name?" John inquired from the side.

Green Arrow hesitated before nodding. "I am sorry, but I prefer to keep my identity a secret, I don't trust you people enough yet."

"It doesn't matter, as long as you can help out." Anakin said with a shrug, he turn to face the girl who looked at them helplessly.

"I… I don't know what I can do to help." The girl said as she flushed. "But you can call me Rogue."

"Wolverine." The burly man said abruptly. "That's my name. I'll work together with you for the moment but only till we get out of whatever this place is."

"Good." Anakin said with a pleased nod. "After examining the strange energies that kept all of us in stasis, I may have a way to get us out, but we need everyone to work together and test it out…"

"Wait a minute." Rogue broke in as she pointed to the other human figures in the corners of the room still frozen. "Shouldn't we free them first?"

"Currently it seemed that no one has detected us breaking out of stasis. But we can't be sure that we'll remain undetected if more people are freed." Anakin said with a frown. "Let's find a way out first before thinking about rescuing the rest of them. If we were detected by whoever created this room while attempting to free the rest of them, we might have lost our chance at freedom."

"It makes sense." Wolverine said with a nod. "I'm with Tin man. Let's find an escape route first before we talk about rescuing the others. So what's the plan?"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Mayor's Mansion, 1130hr_

"Well so far everything looks pretty normal." Jack said to Teal'c as they opened the doors to yet another guest room that was richly furnished. "Nothing seems out of the ordinary."

"It may seem that the Mayor is indeed an ordinary human. Perhaps we were a bit rash in making our theories." Teal'c noted as he moved to try another door. The knob refused to turn. "O'Neil, this one is locked."

"That's strange, if he was just living alone why would he need to lock the doors to the rooms in his mansion?" Jack said frowning as he dug out a set of lock picks. Time spent in the black ops had taught him never to be without such essential tools.

Fiddling with the lock, there was a soft click as the door opened inwards.

"Now to see what's hidden in here… What the hell?" Jack walked into the room and stared aghast at the contents inside. Bottles of organic samples and shelves of old books made Jack wondered if he had somehow wandered into the lair of a mad scientist.

"I do believe that is an unborn human baby." Teal'c said pointing to a large jar in the corner of the room, a disturbed look on his face. He walked forward towards a small table and looked into one of the basket on it. "These contain human fingers that was cut and dried. Why would anyone do that?"

Jack had a grim look on his face as he looked at the basket. Carefully, he took out a plastic bag and using his gloved hands, placed one of the fingers into the bag, sealing it. "Either we're dealing with a psycho or an alien who likes body parts. Take some samples of the stuff in here Teal'c, we might need to bring them back to the labs to analyze."

"Understood O'Neil." Teal'c said as he moved to the other corner of the room, choosing a few organic samples from the jars and baskets before sealing them in small plastic bags and stuffing them into his backpack.

Jack moved to the bookshelves and looked at the books with a half muffled groan. All the books on the shelves were written in some strange languages. He recognised a few latin words on some of the book covers but could not pierce together a coherent translation, its times like this he wished Daniel was here. Carefully, he took down a few books from the shelves and snapshot the covers with his camera.

"O'Neil!" Teal'c suddenly said in a low voice, moving towards Jack. "Do you hear that?"

Jack quickly put the books back in the shelves before looking at Teal'c. "No, what did you hear?"

"I thought I heard some noises downstairs." Teal'c said, a look of worry on his normally impassive face.

"The Mayor's not supposed to be back so soon. But if he is, it's best we're not found in this room. Let's go take a look, if there's really someone in the house, we will need to sneak out quickly." Jack said as they quickly moved towards the door. Stepping out of the room, Jack locked the door behind them with a soft click.

The two of them then proceed to the staircase looking down. There was silence. Jack frowned, something wasn't right. The hairs at the back of his neck were standing up, as though warning him of some unseen danger. After years of military training, he had developed a sixth sense for trouble. There were the sounds of scuffling feet behind them and a voice broke the silence.

"Well, well, I thought I smell a pair of rats, seems like I was right." A male voice chuckled behind them.

Jack and Teal'c instantly turned around and froze in shock at the sight before them. Three humanoid creatures with faces that were protruded and ridged in places grinned at them. But the thing that caught Jack's attention were the yellow eyes that all of them have.

"Oh crap… Goa'ulds." Jack said as he quickly brought up his gun.

"Guns?" The three Goa'ulds in front of them laughed as Teal'c also brought out his gun as well. "You're not the typical demon hunters aren't you?"

"Demon hunters?" Teal'c asked in confusion before making a quick duck as one of the Goa'ulds lunged forward at him with inhuman speed.

Jack quickly pumped several bullets into the Goa'uld that had initiated the attack and watched in shock as the Goa'uld jerked back with each gun shoots before straightening himself after several bullets punched through his chest and arm. Jack had no idea how the Goa'uld still remain standing, but whatever bodies these alien parasites were using as their hosts must be extremely tough.

"You are going to pay for that little human." The Goa'ulds snarled as he aimed a punch at Jack. The punch slammed into Jack at full force, cracking his ribs as well as lifting Jack bodily, slamming him against the far side of the wall. Jack slid down to the floor grunting in pain. He forced himself to stand up as he saw two of the Goa'ulds cornering Teal'c while the other one was moving towards him.

"It is days like this that I wish I have not gone out of retirement." Jack groaned as he readied his gun again staring at his opponent grimly. "The odds aren't so good, but I'm not going down without a fight!"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

_at Mayor's Mansion, 1135hr_

There was a slight sense of distortion before Xander and the others found themselves in a dim and shadowy dinning room, quite unlike the brightly lit room in the picture. Xander and the others tensed, as they saw a bunch of vampires exiting from what looked like an open cellar door in the kitchen through the connecting door way in front of them. The two groups froze as they stared at each other.

"How did you people get here?" One of the vampires asked in shock at their sudden appearance.

"Xander, use your ring and try to sense where are the location of those two we're supposed to rescue." Rommie said in a low voice. "Buffy go with him, the rest will stay with me and help to hold off this bunch."

"Got it." Xander said as he tapped into the power of the ring. He could feel the shimmering emotions of battle readiness from Buffy and the others. As he prodded further with the power of the Heart ring, he sensed pain, a slight fear and resignation. Xander's eyes snapped open as he looked up. "They're upstairs!"

"Go!" Rommie called out as she charged at the surprised vampires who were creeping towards them. A burst of white healing energy erupted from Andrew's hands at the same time, burning one of the vampires while Cordelia tapped into the energies of her teleportation ring and teleport away the head of one of the vampires. The headless body of the vampire gave a twitch before turning into dust.

Xander gave the three one last look before running after Buffy who were already tackling the stairs at great speed. That's when they heard the sounds of gunshots and the snarl of other vampires above them.

As they reached the second level, Buffy and Xander saw the bloodied and battered form of two middle aged guys in the grasp of three vampires. One of the vampire was just preparing to drain the blood of the dark skinned man with a weird tattoo on his head.

"What the… there are more of them?" One of the vampires asked in surprise, as Buffy and Xander came into view.

"Ah man... a hostage situation." Buffy said as she halted at the top of the stairs. She took in the scene, twirling her sword in her hands. "What should we do Xander?"

"Well since you're asking me…" Xander said with a hopeless shrug. "How about charge?"

"That sounds like a good idea." Buffy said with a grin as the Fire ring on her right hand began to glow. "So which one shall I BBQ first?"

The three vampires tensed at the apparent calmness of the two youths facing them, each sensing something very wrong with the picture. They were caught by surprise however when a wall of flame burst into existence in front of the blond girl and flew unerringly straight at them.

As the vampires cried out in alarm, using the two humans in their hands as meat shields, Xander extended his claws and together with Buffy, rushed in under the cover of the fire, beheading one vampire each before the vamps even realised what had happened. As two of the vampires dusted, the dark skinned male rolled out of the dust, aiming a punch at the last vampire who was shielding himself from harm with the older guy in his hands. The last vampire's attention was on Buffy and Xander, so he never saw the attack coming in from his side. There was a meaty thump and a cry as the vampire was lifted into the air by the punch, unwittingly letting go of his hostage.

"Nice punch." Buffy commended the dark skinned male. She was suitably impressed by the strength the man had used as the third vampire was now crumple on the floor. Buffy quickly swipe her sword through its neck as it turned to dust.

The two hostages now released, looked at Buffy and Xander with weary looks on their faces.

"Okay… so I guess you two aren't the normal variety humans." The older white haired male said carefully as his gaze lingered on Xander's extended claws. "What planet are the two of you from?"

OooooooooooooooooooooooooO

**Author's Note:**

Sorry for the delay ^o^" there's no excuse for it except that my imagination ran dry for the past few months so that I didn't know how to continue the story. Hope you guys will like this latest chapter! Thanks to all who have reviewed! And to those whose reviews I somehow did not reply, just want to let you know that I really appreciate your feedbacks and comments!

_Timeline stuff:_

Green Arrow is from the Smallville TV series before he met Clark (whose is now a mini baby Clark in the mini space shuttle)

Rogue and Wolverine are from the X-Men 1 Movie, before they met each other.

Anakin is reborn from a Force ghost into a physical body.

John and Cortana are from end of Halo 3. (Just a question to those who know, after Halo 3, Cortana has what kind of capabilities? Does she contain any Forerunner's knowledge database? I didn't actually play the game so I need someone to fill in the holes. Thanks in advance!)

During the past few months I've also went over all my past chapters for any grammatic and spelling errors and replaced them. I think I caught most of the errors, but there might still be some left :D let me know if you seen anything that doesn't read right. Thank you  !!!


	10. Chapter 10

**10. Chapter Ten: First Contacts**

**Summary:** One Halloween Night changed everything for Xander. Agreeing to a contract with the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon for power, he unknowingly unleashed great evils to the world... changing everything for the Scooby Gang. Buffy / Naruto / Andromeda / Starwars / Multiple Crossovers

**Crossover:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters, objects or plots from  
Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, Andromeda TV series, Star Wars, Stargate SG-1 TV series, Casper the friendly ghost, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Ghostbusters, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VI (Final Fantasy III in North America), X-Men, Primeval TV series, Final Fantasy X-2, Highlander, Smallville TV series, Star Ocean Video Game series, Gundam Manga and Anime series, Xenosaga Video Game series, Naruto Manga and Anime series, Dungeons and Dragons, Carebears, Pinky and the Brain, Star Trek, Gurps, One Piece Manga

**Book Title:** Master of the Forbidden Seals

**Author:** Wraithrune

* * *

**Chapter 10: First Contacts**

_"Little is known of Jonathon Levinson, Andrew Wells, Jack O'Neil Jr. and Anna Maria, code name Rogue. Records from the old council archives state that they are the first four Founders of the inter-reality Watcher's Council. The reality which was classified as Reality 10928 in later years by Grand Seal Mistress Dawn Summers, was an alternate reality where Stargate Command and its various aliens exists without the presence of the Hellmouths or demons. Contact between the inter-reality branches was only available between high level Watcher Council members, and the knowledge of reality travel is one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Intergalactic Watcher's Council."_

_~ Entrée in 'History of the Founding Council'_

* * *

_at Mayor's Mansion, 1140hr_

Xander blinked as he looked at the two men that they had rescued. He blinked again as he turned to look at Buffy.

"Did he just ask us which planet we are from?" Xander asked Buffy slowly.

"I believe that's what he said." Buffy replied, a hint of amusement in her eyes.

"It's obvious you are not normal humans." The white haired man cut in dryly, looking at the two teenagers. His eyes lingered on Xander's steel claws, causing Xander to reflexively retract them back under his skin. "Look I am grateful that you two decided to help us. But my partner and I aren't ignorant of life outside Earth. We are part of a government organisation that deals with First Contact situations, acting as middle men between other alien races and the U.S government so you really don't have to worry about us. I am Colonel Jack O'Neil by the way and this is… Murray"

There was silence as Buffy and Xander just gaped at the two men with opened mouths.

"That's certainly interesting." Rommie said as she walked up the stairs with Cordelia and Andrew trailing behind her. They had obviously heard what the man had said because Andrew was looking at the two men with a glazed look in his eyes. "Is what you said true? That there's truly an Earth organisation that knows about the extraterrestrials? We've certainly never heard of it… What is its name?"

The two men turned as one to face the newcomers as if accessing the threat levels. The white haired man who had called himself Jack spoke up again, even as he gave a wince, clutching his injured arm.

"There are more of you." Jack said slowly as he looked back at Xander and Buffy. "You are all together?"

"Erm… I guess… I mean yeah! We're together." Xander said as he closed his open jaws with a snap.

"Then in answer to your question, the two of us are from Stargate Command." Jack said, turning to Rommie who seemed to be the eldest and the impromptu leader of the group. "What we do is not common knowledge on Earth. But we've been in operation for seven plus years, so I find it a surprise that you've never heard of us in the intergalactic scene. We're… pretty famous… or should I say infamous amongst the Goa'ulds, especially after the few times they tried to invade Earth and were thwarted because of our efforts. You certainly seemed to be enemies of them, though I've never encountered any weapons that would turn Goa'ulds to dust."

Andrew and Xander's eyes were threatening to bug out while Buffy had a look of dread in her eyes.

"You call what we were fighting just now Goa'ulds?" Buffy asked slowly as if to clarify, there was a hint of dawning horror on her face.

"Yes, isn't what they are known as intergalactically?" Murray asked with a frown, as if something was not adding up.

Xander looked like he was going to have a stroke any moment, at the mere thoughts of space faring vampires, while Buffy was beginning to look very pale.

"What… do you term as Goa'ulds?" Rommie asked Jack and Murray carefully, shooting Xander, Buffy and Andrew a warning look, imploring them not to speak.

"Goa'ulds? You know the tiny parasitic worms that tunnel into human hosts, coil around the spine, take over one's bodies, and have flashy yellow eyes, as well as fleets of spaceships controlling empires made up of hundreds over planets?" Jack explained with a frown. "Surely you know what you were fighting against, or did you call them by another name?"

Andrew's jaws dropped open at the words spaceships and planets, but he quickly regained his composure when Cordelia gave him a sharp jab in his stomach. The teenagers wore various expressions of shock at the new information. But at Rommie's sharp look, they were holding their tongues.

"You're sure that the Goa'ulds you're talking about _are_ alien parasitic _worms_?" Rommie asked, stressing the word worms.

"Yeah…" Jack replied slowly, looking guarded as he observed the teenagers and the young woman. He seemed to realise that the small group before him had no idea of what he was talking about.

"Thank God!" Buffy broke the silence, giving a relieved sigh. "For a moment there, I thought we were going to have to deal with vampires in space. I am not sure what I could do against planets full of vampires. I mean one girl against zillions of vampires? That's so not fair… Though on second thought, empires of parasitic worms don't sound all that good to me either... They really tried to invade Earth?"

"Wait a minute…" Jack said as he eyed the group of teenagers uneasily. "You're aliens right?"

Xander pinched himself before answering good-naturedly. "Nope, I'm pretty sure I am 100% human, though maybe right now with the gloves on, I am probably…"

"We're demon hunters." Rommie answered, cutting off Xander before he revealed anything he should not. She gave Xander a stern look, the boy really needed to learn discretion. "And the creatures we fought just now are not Goa'ulds, they are vampires."

"You are humans?" Jack asked, shock on his face, before looking at them as if they were crazy. "You must be kidding. Look I've seen that girl call up fire from nowhere, and the boy there sprouts steel claws. What's more vampires are not real! Everyone knows that!"

"I am afraid this would take too long to explain." Rommie said with a sigh. "But the short version is, there are a lot of things going on in this world that you know nothing of. Magic and demons are real for instance. And from your conversation, it seems aliens are real as well."

"Look, no one with common sense is going to believe what you are saying." Jack answered stubbornly. "You're just trying to pull one over me aren't you? What are you people, _really_? I am not leaving until I get the truth!"

Rommie paused, looking at the unflinching face of Jack and Teal'c. Then she turned to Andrew, a glint in her eyes.

"Andrew, heal them if you please." Rommie said in an even voice.

Andrew gave a hasty nod as he threw out his hands at the two men in front of him. Jack and Murray took a step back as two blast of white light emitted from the boy's hands and strike their bodies.

"What on earth are you…" Jack trailed off as his various wounds began to close right before his eyes. He turned to look at Teal'c and saw that his injuries were being healed as well. "How did you do that?"

"Magic." Rommie said simply as she waved her hands to encompass Xander, Buffy, Cordelia and Andrew. "These young children are all talented magicians, able to cast healing, empowerment and elemental spells. I am their guardian, and we are a small group that protects the people of this town from what lurks beneath the shadows. Shadows which you disturbed when you came into this mansion."

The four teenagers just looked at Rommie askance after hearing the half truth and half lie that Rommie was sprouting. But Rommie gave them a small shake of her head, stopping them from saying anything.

"You must be joking." Jack said in a tone of finality. "Look we've dealt with aliens that has healing abilities as well. They could even bring back the dead. You don't have to lie through you teeth like this, ordinary humans can't do what you are doing now."

"You'll be surprised." Rommie muttered before motioning all the teenagers to gather around her. "I see it would take a while to convince you, and it's not safe to stay here any longer. Cordelia, bring us back to the High School library."

Cordelia gave a nod as she raised her hands. Before Jack and Murray could realised what was happening, energy gathered around them and all of them disappeared from the Mayor's mansion. All that's left to speak of their presence was the piles of vampire dust scattered around various locations in the mansion.

* * *

Rogue felt very much alone as she stood beside the group of strange men. One moment she was running away from home after… that incident with her would be boyfriend… The next moment, before she even had a chance to blink, she find herself the damsel in distress in what looked like a setting for a sci-fic show. But unfortunately, she had already seen first hand that this was no show, especially after the burly man, Wolverine got into that fight with Anakin and John.

She was still trying to get over the fact that the strange man, Wolverine, had sprout claws! Then there was the fact that the burly man had recovered from the powerful blow from John remarkable quickly. It made Rogue wonder if he was also a mutant like her, except that if he was really a mutant, she doubted that his powers involved sucking the life out of anyone, which hers' did.

The man who had introduced himself as Anakin Skywalker, dressed in a set of armour she had never seen before, had told them a remarkably simple plan to break out of this place. In essence, the plan boils down to them stealing the plasma guns in the room they were trapped in and tried to blast a way through the energy fields trapping them in their cell. They would focus their plasma beams in one area and hoped that it would be enough to overpower the energy fields. Rogue was going on by faith that there was even such a thing as plasma guns. As far as she knew, her world was not _that_ advanced…

The men had made their way to the pile of guns after Anakin had explained the plan. Rogue however, had lingered behind, making her way to another section where a pile of gloves and accessories seemed to be hovering in mid-air. When she had awoken, she had a brief moment of horror when she realised that her hands were uncovered. Her mutant powers worked by skin contact and it had been pure luck that she had not absorbed the living energies from Wolverine when he had landed on her, during his fight with Anakin. This was something she had to remedy quickly. Anakin and John might be armoured and safe from her touch, but Wolverine and the man calling himself the Green Arrow was not.

"Rogue? Where are you going?" John asked, turning around as he noticed her walking the other way. Anakin looked up in Rogue's direction as he picked up what seemed to be a blaster. Beside him, Green Arrow and Wolverine were choosing their guns as well.

"I am just going to get something." Rogue said smiling wanly as she quickly grabbed the nearest pair of gloves. There was no way she was going to tell a bunch of strangers that she was a mutant. She had seen on TV how some of the mutants were treated by the public, and she did not want to suffer through the same pain and humiliation.

As her hands came into contact with the pair of black leather gloves, a strange energy surge through her body. Thoughts and memories of another woman forcibly took over her as Rogue gave a frightened scream before darkness claimed her.

At the other side of the room, a near similar Halloween possession was taking place as Wolverine picked up one of the guns with his bare hands. His whole facial expression suddenly changed to a snarl as he looked at the men before him.

"Hu…mans must die! For the honor of the Xiati!" The possessed Wolverine cried out as he opened fire on the shocked Anakin and John, with the Green Arrow narrowly ducking out of the energy blast.

"Wolverine! Are you nuts?" Green Arrow cried out as he scampered out of the way from another stray energy beam.

The three remaining men who were still in control of their own bodies had no time to worry about Rogue as they ended up in a battle for their lives.

* * *

"I've got Ms Calendar." Jonathon said after he put down the phone. "She said she'll be here in half an hour."

"Giles told me he would be reaching around that time with Angel as well." Willow said from the second telephone. A frown was scrunched on her forehead. "Though he didn't say what Angel was doing at his place."

"Well at least the adults will be here soon." Jonathon said with a relieved sigh. "So what should we do now?"

Willow was about to speak up when the voice of Harper broadcasting over the computers' speakers interrupted her.

"Incoming internet transmission from Rommie." Harper called out. "Willow and Jonathon, Rommie needs both of you to get Giles. Tell him to go to the Sunnydale High School Library at once and that the military are involved this time round. She's suggesting caution and partial disclosure regarding only the group's supernatural activities. The rest of the team not involved in the rescue needs to remain in the HQ, out of the sight of these newcomers."

"What?" Jonathon asked as Willow instantly picked up her phone, dialling Giles' mobile number. "What is going on? Where did Rommie send the transmission from?"

"The transmission was sent from the internet network in Sunnydale high school library. Rommie also assigned me a top priority task, to investigate the details regarding the two individuals they had rescued. Apparently they were part of a government organisation known as Stargate Command. Rommie needed any information about this organisation ASAP. She had also asked me to further investigate government agencies that had a hand in the supernatural. This is more as a precaution due to certain information Gaia had previously uncovered from the Mayor's computer. The last task is set at a lower priority." Harper's voice replied. "I am combing through the internet resources as of current moment. Rommie has instructed me to contact her, once I've uncovered anything concrete regarding the two they had rescued, as well as the organisation they are working for."

"I've managed to get Giles, he'll be making for the high school after dropping off Angel. He said that Angel can walk in the sun now, most probably an effect of the new power he got last night. Angel would be making his way here on his own." Willow said as she put down the phone, her voice tingled with surprise. She began making her way towards the computer consoles. "So I heard Rommie needs some research to be done. You need any help Harper?"

"Your skills will be welcomed Willow." Harper said as Jonathon and Willow made their way towards the computer stations. "Rommie needs to look up the details on one Colonel Jack O'Neil and a man named Murray, as well as a Stargate Command…"

* * *

The phone call from Jack had been tensed and cryptic.

"_We may have a First Contact situation on our hands. Targets seemed to be friendly, but keep insisting they are humans. They don't seem to be Ancients, and half the time they are sprouting old myths and legends to make me and Teal'c confused.__ They seemed to think we're still trapped in the dark ages!"_ Jack's voice said tersely over the mobile phone. _"I need you and Sam to come to the Sunnydale High School library pronto. Targets are capable of fire manipulation, instantaneous healing, and teleportation, among others. I need you as the cultural expert to tell me why they keep quoting urban supernatural legends at me!"_

Daniel had winced at the frustration in Jack's voice. Jack had hang up shortly after Daniel had agreed to meet him there. Apparently Jack had sneaked away to patch the call, to get hold of the last two members of his team, shortly after the aliens had teleported him and Teal'c to a high school library of all places. Somehow when you imagine aliens, high school libraries usually do not go hand in hand with the image of worldly intergalactic travellers.

"We're here." Sam said as the car screeched into the park way in front of the Sunnydale High School. They had to stop a while back just to get direction to the school, wasting precious minutes before they knew which way to drive to get here.

"How are we supposed to find the library?" Daniel asked as they stepped out of the car, rushing into the school compound. The two of them paused as another car speed into the drive way, braking with a loud screech, parking behind their car.

They watched as a middle aged man, wearing a pair of glasses, stumbled out of his car and briskly walked in their direction, only to stop when he caught sight of them.

"Can I help you? The school is closed on weekends." The man asked looking at the two of them cautiously.

"We're looking for the high school library. Do you by any chance know where that is?" Sam asked, seeing a way to get some directions.

The man raised an eyebrow as he looked at them. "You two are from the military as well?"

Sam took a startled back as she tensed up, looking at the man.

"Well, we're part of the Air Force… We're supposed to be meeting someone at the high school library." Sam said cautiously, not willing to drag out her title unless needed.

"I see." The man gave a heavy sigh as he walked in front of them. "I am Rupert Giles. Follow me, I'll show you to the library since that's where I am going."

"Thank you." Daniel said gratefully as he and Sam began following the older man. "I am Daniel and this is Sam. If I might ask, who are you?"

"I am the high school librarian." The man calling himself Giles said as he turned and gave the two of them a look. "And I am probably the one who is going to explain the things going on in this town to you as well... That is if your government needs me to."

* * *

"Any luck?" Jonathon asked as he peered over Willow's shoulder, looking at the screen while the girl and sometimes hacker tried to run various search programs on the web to gain information about those they were researching on.

"Not much, I did find out that Stargate Command is another name for Deep Space Radar Telemetry after hacking into some government records. But other then that piece of information, there's nothing else. Harper probably has better luck than me, considering that he's an advanced A.I. who can run multiple search and hack programs at the same time." Willow said with a grimace.

"I am afraid I have to disappoint you Willow. I've located the IP addresses used by Stargate Command, but discovered that they utilised a closed network system. Most of the more important databases they used to store their files are not connected to the internet." Harper reported. "Those that are connected to the net contained only various mission reports not deleted from the consoles themselves. From what I've gained so far, I've evidence that this Stargate Command is an organisation that sends its teams, made of mostly Air Force and military personals, to other planets via a device called the Stargate. More information about the device and the government organisation could not be found…"

There was a short pause as a loading bar began appearing in both Willow and Jonathon's console.

"Please give me a moment, one of the search programs had located an archive containing all existing mission reports, from the time Stargate Command had first started its service to this current year. I am downloading the whole archive of contents now." Harper said, the tone of his voice sounded surprised. "The computer system I've targeted is protected by a very flimsy firewall software and belongs to U.S Senator Robert Kinsey. I am surprised that the government leave such sensitive data in such an unprotected system. I have also located files on his computer from an organisation calling themselves the N.I.D. Some reports seemed to touch on the Stargate program, I am downloading those files as well."

A folder named 'Stargate Command Year One' appeared on the desktop of Willow and Jonathon. It was shortly followed by other folders that read 'Year Two' and 'Year Three'. Clicking it, Willow was surprised at the number of sub folders inside, browsing into one randomly and selecting a document, she gasped as she saw an image of round metallic circle ring with a caption below that says 'Stargate'.

"The Stargates, also called the Chappa'ai in Goa'uld, are a series of devices, built by the Ancients, that can create artificial Wormholes between distant planets. The Stargates are often considered to be the Ancients' greatest creation, and so the Ancients are often called the Gate Builders. The Ancients, the Nox, and the Tollan (with the assistance of the Nox), are the only known races that have managed to build Stargates…" Willow paled as she read the report on the Stargate device out loud. "The Stargate is essentially an enormous superconductor, capable of harnessing power from a wide variety of energy sources, especially electricity.

When entering through the event horizon, the matter passing through is converted to energy, and then rematerialized at the event horizon of a Stargate. Wormholes are one way only, though it is unknown what happens if someone goes through an incoming wormhole…

The Stargate has symbols which are combined to form a seven-symbol address. Six of the symbols, representing constellations, indicate the destination's three-dimensional coordinates in space, while the seventh indicates the point of origin…"

"Oh my god…" Jonathon said in shock as he looked at the scientific document that Willow had opened.

Willow paled and then flushed before she seemed to visibly gather her composure. Willow looked at Jonathon as she took a sharp breath.

"How long until all the files are downloaded?" Willow inquired, as she scrolled down the documents that had already finished downloading, feeling faint as she looked at the numerous mission reports and a few technological reports in the folders. A few of them mentioned in passing the various alien species that Stargate Command had so far encountered.

"Fifteen minutes at minimum." Harper replied. "I'm also sending Rommie a copy of what I've downloaded right now… and… I've just received a transmission from her, she asked you and Jonathon to begin printing out the reports so that everyone would have a copy during the meeting later. In the meantime, just go over the documents on hand. She'll be sending Xander, Andrew and Cordelia back to the HQ soon."

"Alright, on to it." Jonathon said with a nod, as he and Willow began printing out all the documents they had.

* * *

Rommie looked up as Giles entered the library with two newcomers behind him, a brown haired man and a blond woman who immediately made their way to where Jack and Murray were leaning near the old weapon's cage. Most of the weapons had been moved to the HQ, but a few remained in the cage, stored in a box out of sight.

The past half an hour had been a tense silence between Jack and Rommie's group. Jack had refused to listen to Rommie's explanation of the supernatural or magic, Rommie was hoping that Giles might be able to do a better job, or even better, show some infallible proof that the supernatural actually exists. If Jack's expression was anything to go by, he still suspects them of being 'not of this world'.

"So those four are the ones you need me to brief?" Giles asked with a heavy sigh as he stopped in front of her. "The Council did instruct every field watchers on what to do if a country's military got involved in the supernatural scene, but I've never expected to actually encounter this problem in my lifetime."

"The Council was prepared for this type of situation?" Buffy asked in surprise. The three teenagers had been gathered uncomfortably around Rommie for the past half an hour, Giles' appearance was like a lifesaver to them.

"Yes, well, the Watcher's Council did have a lot of diplomatic ties to most of the major countries…" Giles said with a grimace. "The Council sells its supernatural research services to any country in need… and let's just say the research fees for each assignment are astronomically high…"

Giles stopped as a cough sounded behind him. Turning, he saw that the four military members had moved from the weapon's cage and were now standing a short distance away from him.

"My group is assembled, and I would very much like to hear what you say. The _truth_ this time." Jack said, giving Rommie a withering look before turning to face Giles. "I am Jack O'Neil and who might you be?"

"I am Giles." Giles introduced himself as he continued. "Librarian of this place and member of the Watcher's Council."

"Watcher's Council?" Murray inquired as he stood beside Jack. "Do you know what it is O'Neil?"

"I've no idea." Jack said with a shrug. "Mind telling us who the hell all of you are?"

"I believe the answer lies in a simple phone call." Giles said with a suffering sigh as he moved towards the phone in the library and began dialling some numbers.

Everyone watched puzzled by his actions until Giles waved them to move nearer.

"Ah… yes United States Special Watch Group?... This is Rupert Giles, Watcher's Council Member… Watcher Code X73891473, authorisation code for your group is 738BN283." Giles said as he pulled out a piece of paper from his wallet and began reading from it. "Ah… yes you see, I've encountered four of your military people, I believe they are from the Air Force… They would need disclosure… I see alright…"

Giles turned and hold the receiver of the phone out to Jack.

"You'll need to talk to the nice lady on the phone… Jack was it?" Giles said as he looked at the small group standing next to Rommie and his charges.

Jack gave Giles a distrusting look before moving forward to accept the phone. There was a pause as he began talking agitatedly into the receiver.

"So that's it?" Rommie asked curiously as Giles moved closer. "A phone call is all it takes?"

"There are some procedures to go through first… before any Watcher's Council member was to reveal the secrets of the supernatural, to any unauthorised military personals in United States." Giles said with a grim smile. "Hopefully this phone call would clear things up a bit… Rommie? Are you alright?"

Giles, Xander and the others looked on worriedly as Rommie suddenly gave a gasp. Her eyes were staring emptily into space, her whole body tensed and frozen.

"I am alright, just receiving some information from Harper… I… oh..." Rommie's eyes widen as she turned to Jack and his team who were now gathered around the phone. She gave them a look akin to understanding and respect, as she continued in a softer voice. "They were telling the truth… about the aliens… and the Stargate Command… Giles, we need to have a meeting later, after this. What Harper found is going to make you see this world in a whole new light."

"That's exactly what I've been doing for the past month." Giles said with a barely audible sigh. "Seeing the _whole_ world in ways that I'll never have imagined."

* * *

Jack took over the phone as Sam, Daniel and Teal'c moved closer to him. He shot a look at the group of teenagers and the two adults standing in a corner, to make sure they were not planning on running away, before speaking into the phone.

"Jack O'Neil speaking." Jack said dryly into the receiver. "Who am I speaking to?"

"I am Lieutenant Sally Trevor, operator of the United States Special Watch Group." A stern female voice replied. "Jack O'Neil, I need your rank and current designation."

"United States Special Watch Group?" Jack said dubiously. "How do I know you're who you say you are?"

"Mr O'Neil, I'm asking for your rank and designation, not asking you to reveal States secrets, like the one you just blundered into." The operator at the other end of the phone said impatiently. "For your information, we're part of the Army. Rank and designation… now."

"Colonel Jack O'Neil. Assigned to Deep Space Radar Telemetry." Jack replied, grimacing at the sharp voice of the Lieutenant Trevor. He heard sounds of typing over the phone, and then a sharp intake of breathe.

"… I am sorry Colonel, it appears your files are classified above my level of clearance." Lieutenant Trevor said in a much nicer voice. "Hold on to the phone for a while, I will need to contact my CO."

"Alright I'll wait." Jack said with a bit of surprise. If she knew that his files were classified, whatever she said about being from the army might be true after all. Not that he had any idea why a Special Watch Group was suddenly involved in this mess.

There was the play of waiting music before someone on the other end of the line picked up the phone.

"Jack O'Neil?" A deep masculine voice spoke over the phone in what sounded like surprise. For some reason, the voice seemed familiar to Jack. "The only Jack O'Neil I knew who's in the Air Force, is that ornery bastard that used to work under me during the Vietnam black ops."

"Colonel Talbot?" Jack spoke in surprise, his mouth gaping open as the voice brought with it past memories of darker times.

"General Talbot now actually. So it _is_ you Jack." General Talbot said with a sigh over the phone. "You were always a bundle of trouble, and now you've literally blundered into a state secret. Not to mention it seems you've some secrets of your own as well. I'm unable to get into your files even with my clearance level which is already damn high. What have you been doing these past years Jack? Last I heard, you were resigned."

"It's classified Talbot." Jack said with a grimace. "So what state secrets did me and my team just found ourselves in?"

"The information cannot be told over the phone. I am tracing your call and it is… from Sunnydale of all places… why the hell did you even go to that place! Never mind that now, get your team to the Sunnydale military outpost just outside town. One of my men will be there shortly to brief you." General Talbot said seriously over the phone. "Do not and I repeat, do not say anything more to the emissary from the Watcher's Council. The US government is only working with the group because we had to. Do not reveal any more information to him or ask him any questions. Take note that the Watcher's Council has no authority whatsoever to ask about what you're doing. Follow my instructions, all will be revealed in the Sunnydale military outpost. This is a direct order Colonel, a call will also be patched to your CO to inform him of what happened to your team."

"Understood Talbot." Jack said grimly as he turned to glare at that Giles man who was looking at him with a knowing look. "I'll get my team there pronto."

"Pack all your things and move out of Sunnydale before night fall. Trust me on this, you don't want to be walking around in this town after dark." General Talbot warned. "I'm sending a man down from our desert post nearby, a Captain Jones…"

"Ah crap…" Jack said with a groan at hearing the Captain's name.

"You know Captain Jones, Jack?" General Talbot asked curiously.

"Let's just say we're supposed to be working together right now, but my team went away to do some separate investigations." Jack said reluctantly.

There was a pause, and then a heavy sigh over the phone.

"I'll get the whole story from Captain Jones later." General Talbot said wearily. "In the meantime, clear out, and don't disturb the emissary from the Watcher's Council."

"Understood sir." Jack said as he put down the phone. He gave his team a look before turning to observe the group of teenagers and two adults, saying in a carrying voice. "It appears we have new orders from higher up. We're to leave these people alone and proceed to the Sunnydale military outpost. But you knew all this was going to happen all along, don't you? Mr Giles…"

* * *

She was Pagie Matthews Halliwell, the fourth and youngest witch in the Charmed Ones. A group of the most powerful white witches in the world. Her powers are telekinetic orbing, glamouring and sensing of one's charges. She was also able to heal, and possess the ability to teleport from one place to another through her orbing powers. Rogue swayed, crumpling to the floor as her mutant powers absorbed Pagie Matthews' abilities and memories, merging them with her own.

There were sounds of fierce fighting and grunts of pain coming from her right. Getting up dizzily, she caught sight of John and Green Arrow holding down a snarling Wolverine. Anakin stood at the side where with a wave of his hand, the gun Wolverine was holding was wretched out from his grasp. Rogue's eyes widened at the display of telekinetic powers, her heart drumming faster as she realised she was not the only mutant here. The change in Wolverine as the gun broke skin contact with him was instantaneous. He swayed on his feet and looked around him in embarrassed surprised.

"What happened? One minute I was holding the gun, and the next minute I was taken over by the mind of an alien creature who wanted to kill humans!" Wolverine said in shock at the mental intrusion. He looked at the charred armour of John and winced in apology. "Sorry about that pal, I tried to take control, but whatever took over me was too strong…"

"I understand, Anakin explained that you were not yourself during the battle." John said with a curt nod. "But what is going on Anakin?"

"I could sense the same strange energies that were in the air around us, within the items themselves as well. Apparently skin contact with the items triggers a mental possession, whereas if you were wearing gloves or armour like me, it seems you will not be possessed." Anakin said, motioning to himself and Green Arrow who had each taken a gun before the fight began. He looked at Rogue who was walking towards them cautiously, eyeing the gloves in her hands. "Rogue… are you alright?"

"Yeah, someone tried to take over me, but I… seemed to have absorbed her memories and powers." Rogue said with a shudder. "It is not a nice feeling."

"Memories and powers?" Green Arrow asked looking at her carefully. "Can you show us this powers you were talking about?"

Rogue wavered for a moment, looking uncertain about showing them what would be more proof of her mutantness, but gave a resigned sigh as she looked at their grave faces. There was no backing out of this. She threw the gloves into the air and called out firmly. "Gloves!"

The three men watched in shock as the gloves dissolved during the mid-air flight into orbs of light. At Rogue's command, the light orbs flew to her waiting hands and solidify as a pair of gloves resting against her palm.

"Well that's new. Rogue… let Wolverine touch those gloves… as a test." Anakin instructed.

"A test for what?" Wolverine protested, looking a bit anxious at more possible mental intrusions. "I am not your guinea pig!"

"Right now your hands are not gloved, and skin contact with any other items in this place would probably cause something else to take over you." Anakin reasoned. "I want to see if the gloves are alright for you to touch now that Rogue has absorbed whatever memories and powers from it. As far as my senses tell me, it is now a pair of normal gloves, with no strange sources of energy imbued in it. I see not much harm in attempting this experiment."

"Senses? Are you a mutant as well?" Wolverine asked as Rogue neared and he reached out to touch the gloves. Rogue rear back a little, expecting what happened with her to happen to Wolverine, but surprisingly Wolverine remained unaffected. Wolverine gave a grunt as he gave Anakin a curt nod. "Seems like you're right. Whatever girlie did to the gloves, it is safe for me to touch now."

"I thought so, but mutant? What do you mean by that?" Anakin asked curiously.

"Mutants are people with some genetic quarks that grant them superhuman powers. Well at least that's what I remembered. I wasn't actually paying attention when Charles was lecturing me on the birds and bees version of it." Wolverine said scratching his head while looking at the gun he had taken previously floating in the air in front of Anakin. "Your powers seemed telekinetic, like… one of those that I know. My powers on the other hand are a bit different, focusing on regenerative healing, which is one reason I could heal so fast."

"Oh!" Rogue said startled and relieved at finding others' like her. It opened an emotional floodgate for her at finding similar people in this time and place. "I guess I am the same as well. I could absorb people's life force and memories through skin contact."

Wolverine looked at her with a raised eyebrow before giving a shrug. He turned to look at Green Arrow and John. "Well… a mutant gathering. Are you two going to tell me you're mutants as well?"

"Sorry, I am not a mutant, at least not that I am aware of." Green Arrow said while John just shook his head.

"Neither am I what you thought me to be. I am but a simple Jedi." Anakin said, continuing firmly. He gave a push with the Force, directing Wolverine's gun towards Rogue, who gave it a weary look. "But we can discuss more on that once we're free. Right now I need you, Rogue, to absorb the energies in the gun to make it safe. This will enable Wolverine to use it. I could try to push the energies out with my Force, but I'm not sure how long that will take, seeing as time is of the essence."

"Alright…" Rogue said with a grimace, touching the gun hovering in the air in front of her. Her back arched back as she gave a gasp.

She was R'kaiti, born of the Xiati race. The Xiati are humanoid aliens with rat like faces that had taken Temporal manipulation techniques and Cybernetic technologies to the next level. They were also embroiled in an intergalactic war with the Human races… Rogue blinked as she tried to push back the decades of hatred for humans as well as the memories of how to create all those Temporal and Cybernetic technological devices.

"Argh..." Rogue cried out, clutching her head as it throbbed in pain.

"Will you be alright Rogue?" Anakin asked, looking at her with worry.

"Most probably… have a massive headache. I don't think I can absorb any more of those memories." Rogue winced.

"That will be fine. I sensed the strange energy in the gun had disappeared. Wolverine can use it now. Green Arrow, John and I are either wearing gloves or armours so we will be safe." Anakin explained with a nod. "If you put on your new gloves, there will be no need for you to absorb any new memories when you take up a gun from the pile over there."

"Alright." Rogue said as she slipped on her gloves. She made her way over to the weapon pile as she chose a gun similar to what Wolverine had previously chosen, a gun of Xiati design. After all, with the new alien memories in her head, she felt sure she knew how to operate the gun. She watched as John chooses a weapon as well, picking up what looked like a massive blaster. She turned to Anakin and met his eyes. "I'm done."

"So am I." John said looking at the Green Arrow and Wolverine who was readying their guns as well.

"Good, let's begin the plan of blasting out of here." Anakin said, as he led them to a corner of the strange prison they were trapped in. "This is where the energy barrier surrounding this prison felt the weakest…"

* * *

Xander was not sure what he had expected to find when the four Air Force people had left the library in a rush and Rommie had ordered Cordelia to teleport them to Headquarters once they had left. Sure he knew that Rommie, with Harper's help, had located more information about the Stargate Command that Jack was talking about. But he was not actually expecting Harper to dig out the whole mission reports of Stargate Command, which narrates the exploits of the various Stargate _teams_ sent through an alien device called the Stargate, to other planets.

More than a few of the mission reports drafted the various missions the Stargate teams had taken to protect Earth from hostile aliens numerous times. With the number of times Earth had been saved from destructions and invasions, the Stargate teams were like the technological, space going version of the Slayer gang. While Xander and the others were saving Earth from being destroyed by the supernatural, the Stargate teams were saving Earth from aliens. In particular, the flagship team of Stargate Command, SG-1 topped the rest of the Stargate teams in the number of contributions they had made towards the organisation, by making alliance with powerful aliens, finding and deciphering alien technologies and the number of times that they had saved Earth.

When he had first opened the folder on SG-1, Xander had been startled when he had seen the familiar faces of the four Air Force personals they had only just rescued and met in the library. The leader was apparently Colonel Jack O'Neil, the white haired guy in the group. Or as Buffy had said, the _old_ guy. He was a highly decorated Air Force Officer who had accomplished combat feats thought impossible during the numerous times SG-1 had been been sent to sabotage any invasion plans, most particularly that of the Gou'alds against Earth.

Major and Dr. Samantha Carter, the only woman in the team was next. As an accomplished astrophysicist and scientist, she was the one that contributed the most to Stargate Command's understanding of alien technologies, as well as ways to reverse engineer them. She was also the second in command of the team and possessed a high level of ingenuity to get the team out of tricky situations as well as helping the team balance the odds against superior technologies. In short, she was the brains of the group.

Dr. Daniel Jackson, an archaeologist and linguist of many ancient languages was a civilian attached to the team. He was instrumental in his part of understanding how the Stargate works as well as deciphering the meanings of the alien languages that they had encountered. He was also the leading linguist in the Ancient's language. The Ancients being the ones who had built the Stargate had left behind a whole cache of other technological legacies in the galaxy, and it was only through Daniel Jackson's translations that Stargate Command had the know how to start operating the devices that they encountered.

Murray, or rather Teal'c, was what is known as a Jaffa, human slaves genetically engineered by the parasitic aliens called the Gou'alds to bear the aliens' larva in their belly pouch. Willow had been a bit queasy at the thought of stuffing an alien parasite in one's own belly, especially when the picture of the Gou'ald had revealed that the aliens are the size of a large worm who would burrow underneath a human's neck and take control of the human's body and mind.

Due to their technological advantage, the Gou'ald had control over hundreds of planets in the Milky Way galaxy, and masquerade as Gods over their human slaves. Teal'c had thrown away his beliefs that the Gou'ald was Gods after encountering SG-1, and had been assisting the team as a fighter as well as provide inner knowledge of the workings of the Gou'ald and Jaffa society. In the reports, it had been stated that Teal'c was granted rights on Earth while he was helping Stargate Command to free his people, the Jaffa, from Gou'ald oppression.

Xander had continued reading of the various alien races the team had encountered, especially regarding the Nox and the Asgards, two of the great races who were once part of the Great Alliance of the Four Races. The four great races apparently included the Ancients, who were humanoid in nature, but had apparently ascended to another plane. Then there were the Furlings, who had vanished, with no one knowing what they looked like. The Nox was another of the great races, humanoid in appearance as well, and bearing great powers over healing and resurrection. They were also unfortunately pacifists, and had secluded themselves in their own planet.

The Asgard was the last of the four great races. Apparently they also once bear a humanoid form. But while trying to find ways to allow them to preserve their enormous knowledge, they begin cloning their bodies, replacing their old bodies with new clones for thousands of years. These long centuries of continued cloning had led their bodies to degrade to a form similar to that of the rumoured Roswell Greys. They were also unable to reproduce and were desperately seeking cures for their genetic problems.

They were also the last of the Four Great races who had maintained contact with the humans on Earth, and the only ones to come to Stargate Command's aid when Earth was in danger many times. As Sam Carter had stated in her reports, they were a wise and benevolent race. Unfortunately, not all the technologically advanced aliens in the galaxy bears the Asgard's peaceful philosophy. This is why Stargate Command had to defend Earth from extra-terrestrial threats numerous numbers of time.

"This is incredible." Xander spoke up at last, after two hours of glancing through parts of the mission reports that Willow had printed out for everyone. "To think we've a whole First Contact program hidden right under our noses. Apparently demons are just a tiny part of the problem in this galaxy."

He looked around at the large table where everyone had taken a seat while looking through the large stacks of reports. Willow, Jonathon, Andrew, and even Cordelia had expressions of mild shock and awe on their faces. Angel, Ms Calendar, Giles and Rommie were however more controlled in their facial responses as they calmly browse through the documents.

"Yes but unfortunately, short of breaking into Stargate Command, there's no way we could use the Stargate to travel to other planets. And even then, not all the planets in this galaxy are populated with Stargates. Those without Stargates can only be accessed by space travels." Rommie stated. She was the only one that did not have a stack of reports to glance through, as she had literal downloaded the whole archive of mission reports in her head already. At the current moment, she was seated beside Giles while she waited for everyone to be done. "With the growing threat of alien invasions, it is also imperative that we concentrate all our efforts on quickly building up a starship force to counter any threats. I think we'll need to look through the Halloween sub-dimension again for any technological devices that could speed up our starship production, and thus provide aid to this Stargate Command organisation."

"You mean revealing ourselves to them? I thought you were all against that just now?" Buffy asked as she looked at Rommie puzzled.

"I still am. There's a difference between revealing ourselves now when we can't even defend our own assets from government acquisition _and_ a difference between revealing ourselves when we have one or preferably more spaceships under our command to back up our claims." Rommie said evenly as she gave a meaningful look at Giles as she continued. "If we were to tell Stargate Command that we've real workable technologies from TV shows and games, what's to stop the government from coming over and confiscate all our devices and equipments for their own uses?

When that happens, not only may we be locked out of the Stargate program, but you may lose any space faring capabilities to travel to other planets to shut down the open Hellmouths. After all, I highly doubt that any government organisation would just let teenagers control spaceships that could destroy continents."

Giles coughed awkwardly as he looked at everyone. "I am afraid what Rommie said is true. If I am a government body, I'd most certainly not hand over command of even one spaceship to a teenager, or any civilian member for that matter. Governments are notoriously hard headed about letting anyone other than their own people have more fire power than they do. For now, we should only let the military thinks that we're a group of demon hunters with a few powerful budding mages in our group."

"So we have to wait until we have enough spaceships to back our claim of power before the governments would agree to let us go our own merry way?" Buffy asked astonished. "That's stupid! We're trying to save the world…"

"I know we're trying to save the world. But the governments have no assurance that we may use the technologies we have on hand for other uses." Rommie said with a sigh. "And governments are all about protecting themselves first. We need to be vigilant right now in case our technologies are stolen from right under our noses. Xander how soon may we enter the Halloween dimension again to do a full inventory of the technological devices inside? We need to see if there is any useful equipment that can speed up our starship production."

"Well anytime actually." Xander said patting his pocket. "I've the seals and everything with me at all times…"

Everyone looked at Xander as he paused and suddenly began to sniff the air around him. Cordelia who was seated just next to him started to inch away.

"What are you? A dog?" Cordelia said in mild disgust as she tried to put in some distance away from Xander who was starting to invade her personal space.

"No, don't you smell something burning?" Xander asked with a frown as he sniffed the air. He froze as he looked at everyone. "Chaos… I can feel chaos energies coming from somewhere…"

Xander never got a chance to continue as a flood of white light orbs streamed from his pocket. There was an oppressing wave of energy and then an explosion which shattered the large table and sent everyone tumbling out of their seats.

A dark armour clad figure stood in front of him as Xander blearily picked himself up from the wreckage of his chair. Chills ran down his spine as he realised who he was looking at.

"Oh shit!" Xander said with a horror filled voice as he began to back away. Inch by inch…

* * *

**Author's Note:** There at last! The first meeting between Buffy gang and SG-1 is finally over. I've rewritten that scene more than five times (I lost count), because I keep writing out lame encounter scenes. Hope this one is more logical.

Anyway :D A belated Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary: **One Halloween Night changed everything for Xander. Agreeing to a contract with the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon for power, he unknowingly unleashed great evils to the world... changing everything for the Scooby Gang. Buffy / Naruto / Andromeda / Starwars / Multiple Crossovers

**Crossover: **Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any characters, objects or plots from Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, Andromeda TV series, Star Wars, Stargate SG-1 TV series, Casper the friendly ghost, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Ghostbusters, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VI (Final Fantasy III in North America), X-Men, Primeval TV series, Final Fantasy X-2, Highlander, Smallville TV series, Star Ocean Video Game series, Gundam Manga and Anime series, Xenosaga Video Game series, Naruto Manga and Anime series, Dungeons and Dragons, Carebears, Pinky and the Brain, Star Trek, Gurps, One Piece Manga

**Book Title: Master of the Forbidden Seals**

**Author:** Wraithrune

**Chapter 11: Unexpected Arrivals**

_"Rampancy... a terminal state of being for Artificial Intelligence constructs in my world. The AI "develops delusions of godlike power", as well as utter contempt for its mentally inferior makers. In short, they go crazy... Once rampancy occurs, there is no known way to restore the AI to its previous state and the only alternative is to destroy it before it harms itself and others around it..."_

_"Maybe that is the AI technological limit of your world... but we've AIs from at least two different universes right here... I am sure there's a way... we can help one another..."_

_~ Secret conversation, between Rommie and Cortana_

The first thing that Anakin did when he was released from the energy prison was to quickly crotch into a defensive position, his light saber activated in his hands. The next thing was to quickly take stock of his situation. He was therefore a bit surprised when instead of a group of armed guards greeting him, he was instead surrounded on all sides by a group of teenagers and adults who were backing away from him in shock. It took a moment for him to realize he had seen this same group before... in his Force vision.

"Oh shit!" The exclamation from the boy on the floor in front of him caught his attention. The boy in question was crawling backwards, trying to get some space between them.

"It's Darth Vader!" Came another exclamation to the side. Those three words seemed to spur the strange group into action because bolts of lightning, fire and even water began hovering above the hands of some of the members who began to look threateningly towards him.

"What is going on here?" Rogue's exasperated voice cried out, cutting into the tension that suddenly filled the room. "Are all of you mutants? We just escaped this strange prison, we don't want to fight any of you!"

"Prison?" The boy on the floor in front of Anakin slowly got up, looking wearily at Anakin all the while. "Okay... just what is going on here? You mean you actually got Darth Vader to work with you to get out of the Halloween dimension?"

"I don't know what Halloween dimension you are talking about." Anakin said, turning off his light saber. Perhaps it was intuition, or the Force, but Anakin suspected he had nothing to fear from this group of humans who seemingly wield strange abilities. "But I am not Darth Vader. That was one of my unpleasant past that I have long let go. I am Anakin Skywalker, once a Force ghost... but it seems now I am mortal again."

"Anakin Skywalker?" A look of relief flickered across the boy's face before he let out a sigh, his tensed shoulders relaxing. "That... was unexpected, I thought I'll have to face down a Sith Lord."

Within his helmet, Anakin gave a frown. "How do you know of my history? Who are you? And where is this place?"

"I guess I really should explain... especially since you guys are now out in the real world." The boy said with a weary look in his eyes. "I am Xander. I... I am the cause of why you guys are here today. But first let's move this discussion to the couch, I am sure it isn't comfortable standing in the wreckage of the table..."

OoooO

Oliver Queen, code name Green Arrow, was not sure what to think after he had listened to the boy, Xander, and his group explained what had actually happened to them. In a reality where magic and demons were real, a mage had cast a spell on Halloween night that was the focal point of what had happened. Xander Harris had made a deal with a nine-tailed fox demon which had the accidental effect of turning a lot of Halloween objects and costumes real. Oliver and the others were considered part of the accidental side effect.

Xander had thought to keep everyone and everything in stasis until the group had built enough facilities to support the Halloween characters turned real. The boy had then rushed on to explain that now that Oliver and the others were out in the real world, the group would do their best to support them. After all, what happened was partially Xander's fault. Oliver and the others could choose to make a new life for themselves in this world or help out with the group's activities. In the meantime Xander would promise to research and find a way to see if he could return them to their home reality if they wished it.

It was too much to take in. The only saving grace Oliver had right now was that he did not really had anyone waiting for him back home. His parents were both killed and he had never really made the effort to form any permanent attachments. His time back in his reality was mostly spent managing Queen industry, a multimillion business in itself, and also taking on the persona of Green Arrow to right wrongs done in the world. A vigilante, very much like what Xander had described his group to be.

Currently, Xander and the others had allowed the escapees from the Halloween dimension to have sometime to really absorb what had really happened. They had the whole couch area to themselves, though the green armored Master Chief and Anakin had remained standing, most probably due to their refusal to shed their armor.

"I can't believe it." Wolverine cursed with a growl. "They plucked us from our realities and dumped us in another."

"If we are to go strictly by what the boy Xander had said, we're actually inanimate objects turned real, given life." Oliver pointed out, his mind keeping a tight rein on his current dark emotions. "The important thing is, what do we do now?"

"I..." Rogue began but quickly fell silent, her eyes were downcast. "If what Xander said is true, that he will support us in this world... I want to start a new life here. There's no mutants in this reality, no hatred for mutants. No discrimination... I can start a new life here."

"I suppose if you look at it that way it might be a good thing for those of us with no one waiting for us back home." Wolverine said gruffly. He turned to look at Anakin and Master Chief. "Well? The three of us have voiced our opinions. What about you two tin cans?"

"The name is Anakin." Anakin Skywalker said calmly, looking at Wolverine, his helmet tucked to the side of his arm. "As for our new situation... I will prefer to wait and see. For the immediate time being, it seemed the group have no way to return us back to our home realities. That means whatever choices we make, we still have to remain in this reality. If that is the case, I'll say to take up on their offers of making a new life here for the current time being. As to whether to help the group... I must say I am interested in seeing more of this magic and the demons they are talking about."

"It is as Anakin say, the prudent thing will be to wait and see." Master Chief replied in a gravelly voice beside Anakin. "In fact, it might be best if we stick together in this world... in case things did not work out with Xander's group."

Oliver nodded his head, understanding Master Chief's reasoning. In this reality, the only people they could truly trust were those that they had escaped together with.

"Then let's take them up on their offer of starting a new life here. I also want to get a chance to look at the economic situation in this alternate Earth." Oliver said looking at the others. "I am a businessman, and I may be able to ensure that we live comfortably in this world. That is provided the funds they give us are sufficient."

"Good. Then the five of us will watch each other's back." Wolverine said, clasping Oliver on the shoulder heartily. "It's time we talk to them and see what they have to say."

OoooO

Stepping into his living room, Mayor Wilkins stared crossly at the pile of vampire dust on his carpet.

"Oh dear... And they make such a mess too. I'll have to send the whole carpet for dry cleaning just to get the dust out." Mayor Wilkins said with a frown.

"I wonder who would have the nerve to break into my place." Mayor Wilkins gave a shrug as he turned and make his way towards the stairs to the second floor. "Well a Ritual of the Twilight Shadows should be enough to reveal the invaders. I'll just have to get some blood from a virgin cow, wait until midnight, and order up some more protection..."

Mayor Wilkins never noticed the cloaked starship following him as he took out his cell phone and placed a call.

"Ah Finch, I have some work I need you to do..." Mayor Wilkins said as he went into his spell room to prepare the ingredients he would need for the ritual tonight. Once that was done, he would know who had intruded upon his home.

OoooO

"For the time being, the five of you will have to make your home here." Giles said apologetically as he addressed the group consisting of Anakin Skywalker, Wolverine, Oliver Queen, Rogue, and the armored man that they called Master Chief. "We've begin ordering the necessary furniture and building the living quarters for all of you, but all these will take time. Just make yourself at home in the meantime."

"And on these printed sheets are the bank statements for all five of you." Xander said, handing the group a sheet of paper with their name each. "Harper, our A.I. has hacked into the State system to create new identities for all of you. You'll receive your new identities within the week. He has also created electronic bank accounts for each of you, diverting funds from the company accounts. We've given you seven thousands to start each of you off in this world, and will fund you on a monthly basis."

"I have no idea of the financial circumstances of this world, but in my reality what you're giving us can be considered a significant amount, especially when the sum is totaled up." Oliver said raising an eyebrow.

"We... are able to provide sufficiently for the group's needs." Xander said with a grin at Oliver Queen. "Don't worry about where the money come from. We shall be able to live comfortably in the meantime, until the company became self sufficient to support all of us."

"Take these few days to get used to life in this... new world. The computers here are for your usage as well." Giles said, waving a hand towards the computers set up in the corner of the hangar. "Rommie and one of us will be here at all times so if you have any trouble or needs, you can approach us. The girls have all went to town to gather the necessary supplies for your stay here tonight. There's unfortunately currently only one washroom in the company base. It's located at the end of this hangar to be exact. I am afraid for the time being you'll have to share the facilities."

"I am sure we can rough it out for the time being." Wolverine said as he interrupted Giles. "But I want to state something. I am not a freeloader. I will rather not keep taking money from you. Once I find a way to support myself..."

"Ah yes I am getting to that." Giles said giving Xander a look. "As Xander has explained to you. We've just set up Andromeda Inc. and such will be needing a lot of manpower to handle the operations of the company. We will actually like to hire each of you as employees of the company. There are currently four departments in the company, though after some discussions we've added a fifth department. The Alpha department handles all Future technologies which we are going to build for our group's usage. Currently members are Rommie and Andrew. We'll also like to hire Anakin as part of the group handling all future tech."

"I am agreeable to it." Anakin said with a nod of agreement. "It is something to spend my time with anyway."

"That's good to hear. Then there is the Beta department which handles technologies we are building and selling to the world, as well as the Gamma department which handles any entertainment and fashion media we're producing. These two departments are the "front" of the company so to speak, what the world will see us as. We are aware Mr Queen that you handle a multimillion business back in your reality." Giles said looking at Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow. "We're actually like to hire you on as a CEO to handle the business building prospect of the company. I am afraid none of the current group has the necessary skills in this area."

"That should not be a problem." Oliver said with a glint in his eyes. "As Wolverine and Anakin has pointed out, I'll rather work for my pay. And it will be interesting seeing what products you're... offering to your world."

"Ah yes, we're currently in the process of identifying our core marketing areas." Giles said as he turned to look at Rogue. "We're going to need more people to help us in identifying those products, so... Rogue, do you wish to take part in working under the Gamma branch?"

"I'll do what I can to help." Rogue said with a nod.

"The last two branches are Delta branch, a pure research branch to support the group only, as well as the Epsilon branch, a newly created branch which will handle security in the company base itself." Giles said looking at Master Chief and Wolverine. "The servers in the company base contains a lot of technologies not found in this world, as such this base will need protection. Angel will be heading this new branch, and we will like to hire you, Master Chief and Wolverine as the branch's security experts."

"That's acceptable." Wolverine said with a grunt. "So when do we start?"

"Anytime you wish actually. Though it may be best for you to get used to this new reality first." Giles advised. "In the meantime, all five of you are welcomed to join our group meetings. Currently we have a few things on our plate that we... need to settle."

OoooO

"You are telling me that magic and demons are real? That the US army has a unit devoted to studying these... sub-terrestrials?" Jack asked incredulously as he looked at the annoyed stare of one Captain Jones.

"Yes." Captain Jones gritted out. "If you have followed my instructions and avoided Sunnydale, you will not have become involved in this! I don't even know why the higher ups decide that you will be given the clearance to know all of this."

"To know this huge cover up you mean!" Jack said angrily. "If what you are saying is true, why do so many people have no knowledge of this? I am pretty sure bodies drained of blood isn't something the police around the world can overlook!"

"The supernatural community, the magic users and sub-terrestrials tend to avoid human communities as a whole. Only very few subset of the sub-terrestrials hunt humans, and most tends to converge at places of high mystical convergence. Like Sunnydale. Which if information provided by the Watcher's Council is to be believed, is a Hellmouth, gateway to one of the many hell dimensions." Captain Jones said shortly, apparently disgruntled that he was the one providing disclosure of the supernatural to the group before him.

"But what is this magic you are talking about?" Carter inquired, a frown on her forehead as her scientific mind screamed outrage that Captain Jones actually believed what he said. "Have you ever seen any of this magic in action?"

"The kids we met, they did say what they could do is magic." Jack offered up reluctantly, deepening Carter's scowl.

"We'll need to conduct more tests on this magic. There must be some scientific reasoning to all of this. Perhaps these magic users are born with the capacity to manipulate energy..." Carter began but was quickly cut off by Captain Jones.

"You will do no such thing." Captain Jones said sternly. "The higher ups may want me to give you disclosure on the sub-terrestrials, but they also want me to pack all of you back to your base once the disclosure is concluded. The military arm in charge of the sub-terrestrials will be taking over this case after this."

"But we've told you about Mayor Wilkins..." Daniel began in protest but was cut down by Captain Jones.

"I've seen your evidence regarding Mayor Wilkins." Captain Jones said shortly. "Apparently he was not the docile white magic user the higher ups thought he is. He will be dealt with, but not by you four. The magic users that rescued you from Mayor Wilkins' mansion will also be closely monitored. Orders from the president are that once disclosure has been completed, you'll be taking the first flight out to Colorado. Enjoy your stay in the base in the meantime."

Captain Jones gathered up the documents he had shown SG-1 during the disclosure before walking quickly out of the room.

"O'Neill, what should we do?" Teal'c spoke up in the silence.

"What can we do?" Jack said in disgust, slamming his hand on the table. "They dropped this bombshell on us and tell us not to get involve."

"Strangely after knowing about the Stargate, it's not as earth shattering." Daniel mused tiredly. "I guess this fight against the sub-terrestrials just isn't for us."

"Maybe." Jack said with a glint in his eyes, a grim smile on his face. "Maybe..."

OoooO

Jenny Calendar gave a satisfied sigh as she looked at the temporarily living quarters the group had set up in the corner of the main hangar. Shortly of the the arrival of the five new comers, she and the girls had packed up in her car to return back to town to do some necessary purchases. It had taken her a lot of money to ensure that the furniture shops pull through with their last minute delivery of beds, drawers, cupboards and shelves for the five new arrivals. Careful arrangement of the tall shelves and drawers had divided up the living quarters, giving some semblance of privacy.

Cordelia's keen eye had also ensured that the pile of clothes they bought for each of the five arrivals managed to fit all of them. She had been quite surprised when Master Chief had stepped out of his armor to reveal a decent looking and handsome man, whose only abnormality was his skin color which was a deathly white.

Oven, kettles, portable fridge and heat pads for cooking had been installed in the pantry turned kitchen area. A large assortment of utensils and food had been bought and stored in the fridge and cupboards. All in all, the main hangar was self sufficient enough to act as a temporarily living quarter for the time being.

The whole shifting, arranging and setting up of the quarters had taken hours. By the time they were done, it was already nearing midnight. Jenny herself was feeling a bit weary, but one look at the excited and energetic faces of the teenagers showed that they were still running on adrenaline from the excitement of meeting the new arrivals.

"Xander and the others have suggested a sleepover here tonight." Giles said softly as he walked up to Jenny. "Buffy and the others have already called back home to inform their parents. I guess this is a good time as any to continue discussing what happened in the morning."

Jenny nodded, so many things had happened that their discovery of Stargate Command had seemed like something that had happened a long time ago.

"Well, luckily the long table I've ordered is already delivered." Jenny said as she made a move to where the new table was situated. "I'll get the girls to prepare snacks and drinks, we've a lot of planning to do."

OoooO

"... as I was saying about Leia, she had finished the production of three squadrons, each consisting of five Starspies." Rommie said, with the whole group, including Anakin and the new arrivals sitting at the long table listening to her. "With our new knowledge regarding Stargate Command, it is best to send one squadron of the Starspies to Stargate Command to monitor their going-ons. The journey by hyperdrives to reach their destination will take about a day so it's best for us to decide on this soon and send them on their way."

"That's a sound suggestion, we do need to know what is happening within that place." Giles said with a nod. "Especially if there are any impending alien invasions."

"What about the other two squadrons? Can we send one to Dawn first?" Buffy spoke up, looking at Rommie sharply. "I'll feel much safer if Dawn is being looked after."

"That will be our first priority." Rommie said with a nod. "The last squadron will be sent to replace Gaia in watching Mayor Wilkins. Leia can churn out another four squadrons of Starspies by nightfall tomorrow, so within one more day, we'll be able to have Starspies covering Sunnydale. After that, she'll be able to work on constructing a new and smaller World Devastator which will be used purely for Starspies construction."

"Good, if there are no objections let's proceed with Rommie's suggestion." Giles said looking around the table.

"I've send the commands to the three squadrons of Starspies. They have exited Leia and are on their way to each of their targets. Gaia will be returning to base once the squad of Starspies assigned to Mayor Wilkins replace her." Rommie reported after a short pause of silence. "Now that the monitoring of the Starspies are decided, we'll need to prepare for eventual investigation by Stargate Command and even the government into our group."

"Our connections with the Watcher's Council will probably deter them some what. Especially since the Council are well known for their dealings in the supernatural." Giles spoke up as he began polishing his glasses. "Several of you have already been ousted as magic users to the SG-1 group from Stargate Command. I presume that the details will be listed in their reports. We can... deal with that by keeping up the deception. But just in case we ended up being investigated, for the time being, it is prudent to hide whatever advanced weaponry we have. Only magic or attacks that seems like magic will be used during patrols."

"I agree. That means no ray guns or strange mutant powers we can't explain away as magic." Ms Calendar spoke up from her position beside Giles. "We don't want the government to find out about the technologies we really have."

"That probably means I should use Wolverine's claws less often." Xander muttered, giving a groan.

"Andromeda is currently running through several worse case scenarios should anything happen." Rommie said. "A portion of our current funds has been transferred to a secure account which will not be linked to us. I am proposing that we also set up several safe houses in case we really have to end up fleeing from the government."

"Surely it wouldn't be that bad?" Buffy protested weakly at the thought that they might be forced to run.

"There's no way of knowing what the government will do once they know some of us are 'magic users'" Rommie pointed out. "It is best to prepare for the worse then to have no way out when the worst happens."

"Setting up safe houses will take up a lot of effort." Giles said as he considered the suggestion. "But you're right in being prepared. With our increased man power now, we can also share the burden of setting up those safe houses. I'll organize a team after this to deal with it. In the meantime, let's discuss company matters, it is time to make our first foray into the local market. I believe Cordelia has already narrowed down some clothing designs, while Jonathon and Andrew have selected some prospective games..."

OoooO

Surrounded by his newly hired vampire minions, Mayor Wilkins stood in the center of his living room as he began the ritual which would reveal to him those that had intruded in his home during the day. Dark power poured through him as he poured blood from a virgin cow into the pile of vampire ash he had gathered before him. The ashes transmuted into orbs of dark gray light. Before Mayor Wilkin's eyes, the orbs of gray light floated towards the kitchen, to reveal shadowy images of his ex-vampire minions walking out of their home in the cellar.

Mayor Wilkin stayed silent as he began to trail after the shadowy figures of his deceased vampire minions as they went up to the second level of his mansion, to came upon two unknown men creeping around the upper level rooms.

A fight began, the two men seemingly not knowing that their enemies were vampires. Instead of dusting the vampires, they tried to knock the vampires out... an action that proved unsuccessful. The two men were on the verge of death when several newcomers appeared. Mayor Wilkins snarled as he recognized the Slayer and one of her male tag alongs dust his vampire minions with some strange form of magic. Several others that Mayor Wilkins did not recognized also appeared, all of them wielding some strange form of magical abilities.

By the time the time the revelation spell ended when the group teleported away, Mayor Wilkins' eyes had flared up with a coldly calculative look. It seemed that the Slayer and her group were no longer the small nuisances that he had first thought they were. Somehow within the past few weeks, they had grown more powerful and had found a bunch of magically competent allies, becoming a force to be reckoned with.

There was also the troubling matter of who the two unknown men, that his vampire minions had first found were. From the way he had seen those two men interact with the Slayer group at the end, it had seemed that they belonged to a separate group. And the way the two men had crept around his rooms, it seemed that they were trying to find information on him. A troubling matter since he had no idea which group those two men belonged to, especially since the time of his Ascension was nearing within the year.

Mayor Wilkins' mouth straightened into a thin line. It seemed he would have to remain careful and alert in the coming weeks ahead, and probably made a few plans to distract the Slayer group's attention away from him.

OoooO

"This is a totally unbelievable group and situation we've found ourselves in. Wouldn't you agree?" A lithe feminine voice said softly through the speakers of his helmet.

"What have you found?" John asked, keeping his voice low. He had retreated into the area set up for him by Jenny Calendar and the others not long after the group's meeting had ended. After at last deciding that it was unlikely the group would meant him harm, he had carefully unstrap his armor which he placed within easy reach of his bed. The helmet containing Cortana's Smart A.I. chip rested in his hands.

"I managed to access the internet of this world, that Giles and the others talked about." Cortana revealed in an apologetic voice. "The group knows of my presence, or at the very least, the A.I. Harper, who is guarding the group's servers know of me. He allowed me unrestricted access to the internet. John, Harper is a synthetic A.I., at least as advanced as me in certain aspects. What Xander said about us being fictional characters were also true. There's information on the web about some Halo game that is in production, with us briefly listed as the main characters."

John shook his head in disbelief. He had fought the Covenant and the Flood. He had stopped the Halo from firing and destroying all living beings in his universe. He had saved Earth, and had accepted his possible death when the ship carrying him back to Earth was sheared in half in a slipstream accident.

Then he had appeared here, in this reality with Cortana, where he discovered that he was a fictional character in this reality who was brought to life through magic. It was mind bending. It was also too impossible to just accept without further proof. Thus he had Cortana do some discreet searching. Only apparently it was not discreet enough.

"I've also located the fictional universes of Anakin Skywalker, Rogue, Green Arrow who's name is actually Olive Queen, and Wolverine. They are all fictional characters from movies and comics." Cortana said in a voice heavy with disbelief. "I've even gathered information about the android Rommie who actually came from the Andromeda TV show in this reality. John... I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. The crucial factor here is this 'magic' that this group talk about. We need to find out more about this 'magic' and try to understand it. I have a feeling it is going to be very important to us."

"Mr Rupert did mention that the majority of their supernatural library are in this hangar." John said with a nod, he knew Cortana would be able to 'see' him through the helmet's sensor. "I'll take a look through the books when I have the opportunity."

"Books, real paper books." Cortana said with a hint of dry humor. "Even back in our world, they were rare luxury items to the rich."

"We're not exactly in our world now..." John paused as his sharp hearing picked up the sounds of footsteps nearing his location. Cortana fell silent as she sensed the tension in John. Within moments, Rommie walked in, circling past the cupboards that acted as walls for his small living quarter.

John held the android's eyes as the two of them stared at each other in a measuring manner. Then Rommie smiled, walking forward to John.

"If you do not mind my intrusion, I will like to have a word with you John-117... and Cortana." Rommie said, as she turned her eyes away from John to look at the helmet in his hands. "It will be nice... to talk to another sister in spirit."

OoooO

**Author's Note: **And the story lives again :) sorry for the long wait ppl!


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary:** One Halloween Night changed everything for Xander. Agreeing to a contract with the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon for power, he unknowingly unleashed great evils to the world... changing everything for the Scooby Gang. Buffy / Naruto / Andromeda / Starwars / Multiple Crossovers

**Crossover:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any characters, objects or plots from Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, Andromeda TV series, Star Wars, Stargate SG-1 TV series, Casper the friendly ghost, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Ghostbusters, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VI (Final Fantasy III in North America), X-Men, Primeval TV series, Final Fantasy X-2, Highlander, Smallville TV series, Star Ocean Video Game series, Gundam Manga and Anime series, Xenosaga Video Game series, Naruto Manga and Anime series, Dungeons and Dragons, Carebears, Pinky and the Brain, Star Trek, Gurps, One Piece Manga

**Book Title: Master of the Forbidden Seals**

**Author: **Wraithrune

**Chapter 12: Protector in the Shadows**

"_The second recorded formation of the HX-F711 type chaos portal in A.D 1998, was detected too late by Alexander Lavelle Harris, the first Seal Master. A swarm of harmless winged animal hybrids managed to cross the portal, alarming much of the world when news reports showed pig like animals with wings. They were later named Pawks, a combination of the initial of **P**igs, and H**awks** due to their pig like anatomy and hawk wings. The existence of Pawks had a huge impact on the world. Forever immortalizing the phrase 'Pigs can fly'."_

_~ Legends of the Intergalactic Watchers' Council_

OoooO

_3000 SA (Space Age), over Sunnydale Lagoon_

"Mistress... It is as you said, the tear in space/time appeared over the coordinates you've given us." The man said to the woman beside him, a hint of awe in his eyes. Above them, a platoon of Wasp Frigate was deployed, keeping the air space clear of any unwanted intrusion. Far in the distant, a swarm of migrating Pawks, genetically altered flying pigs, skirted around the shield perimeters set by the Wasp Frigates. Around them, an army of Peace Keepers were on high alert, guarding over the land area they had fenced up.

"Good." The woman said in a powerful rich tenor voice that spoke of years of command. Her eyes looked at the sparkling shimmer of broken space/time over the waters of Sunnydale Lagoon and she smiled. "I've waited for this moment for more than 3000 years. It seemed that _His_ calculations were correct, the tear in space/time is here, in this exact spot."

"As per your instructions, your personal frigate has been loaded with the essentials for your trip." The man rushed to say, nearly stumbling over his words. "Please Mistress, isn't there some other way?"

"Jordan, you knew the _Histories_, you knew what your Ancestors had to go through the first time the Powers tried to mess with our lives." The woman said, a bitter tone in her voice. A look of anger and grief flickered in her eyes. "A lot of lives were lost the first time. Lives which were paid just to fulfill some great plan of the Powers. Back then, there was no Transplanar Agreements of Non-Interference to protect the mortals chosen by the Powers to be their chess pieces, the so called Champions. The Agreements were something that only came into effect when those of us who survived the many meddling of the Higher Beings, rose to powers of our own. _He_ however saw a way to change that, even as far as 3000 years ago."

"Bless my honored Ancestor." Jordan said bowing his head in reverence at the woman's mention of the man. "I just wish that some of us could go with you Mistress..."

"You know the reason Jordan." The woman said in a kinder voice. "Where I am going, it's a one way trip through the time stream. My very presence in the past will cause the reality to branch off, leaving this current timeline as an alternate reality. Once there, I've to stay hidden from the senses of the Powers until the right time to disrupt their plans. I only have a brief window to interfere, and once the Powers detected me, there's a high chance they'll banish me from their domains or outright kill me if they are powerful enough. I will not risk any of you that way."

"But Mistress..." Jordan pleaded but was cut off by a shake of the woman's head.

"Enough Jordan, I have made my decision. Keep safe and stick to the plan. Humanity has grown in all these thousands of years, you'll all live on fruitfully after I am gone." The woman said as she began walking towards her frigate in the distance. She turned back, giving him one last smile. "My blessings upon all of you."

Ten minutes later, the frigate rise into the air, flying straight into the space/time tear over the Sunnydale Lagoon. The space/time tear flickered violently before vanishing. Taking the last piece of humanity's Ancient Guardians with it.

OoooO

_December 1998, Andromeda Inc._

Xander was quite certain that there was something he had forgotten. Something important... But so many things were happening at once that it was more than a bit chaotic at their new Headquarters. First they had to deal with the new arrivals and explain things to them. Then Xander, Giles and Rommie had to sort through this tangled mess and find some ways to provide for the newcomers. Temporarily living quarters were set up and the discussion quickly moved back to the discovery of Stargate Command and what to do about it.

By the time the meeting was over, everyone was beginning to settle down. Master Chief had retired to his bed fairly early. Rommie had mysteriously vanished a few moments later. Andrew with his Star Wars fanboyism had latched onto Anakin and had begun showing him the various higher technologies that he with Forge's X-men abilities and Rommie's help had begun building.

Xander, Willow, Buffy and Cordelia had taken upon themselves the duty of keeping Rogue and Green Arrow company as they spent the night watching copies of the more famous TV shows as part of the two's induction into their world. Wolverine had requested to take a look at the grounds they own, and thus Angel had obliged, leading the wiry man on a tour around the old airport compound. Surprisingly Jonathon had followed the two. The quiet boy apparently had a bit of hero worship for Wolverine of the X-men comics.

Three hours and two Star Wars movies later, just as dawn was breaking and the weary group was preparing to settle down to rest, Xander in a stroke of clarity finally realized what had eluded his mind for the past hours.

Chaotic energies had been released when Anakin and the others had broken through the Halloween pocket dimension. The first time chaotic energies had been released into their world, a portal to the past had opened and a dinosaur had stepped through.

Xander's blood ran cold as he pondered what might be released this time after so many hours where the portal had remained undetected.

"Oh shit." Xander swore as he jumped out of the couch he was sharing with Oliver Queen, aka the Green Arrow, and Willow, causing the two of them to stare at him in shock. "We're in deep trouble!"

OoooO

_December 1998, above the waters of West Sunnydale Beach_

The shimmering broken pieces of lights hung above the tepid waters near the West Sunnydale Beach. At this late hour, no one was around, and thus no one saw when the broken pieces of light gave a shudder and disappeared.

If Earth's technologies were powerful enough to pierce through layers of powerful cloaking technologies and invisibility spells, they would have seen an elegant silver and white frigate, the size of a bus emitting a wave of powerful energy that collapsed the portal which had been hanging above the waters of West Sunnydale Beach only moments before.

But no magic or technologies of this current Earth were able to detect the ship, and thus no one noted its departure as it streaked upwards into space.

OoooO

Jenny Calendar rubbed tired eyes as she finished the spell casting for the third time. She was not a powerful witch, but she was quite certain that her scrying had covered the boundaries of Sunnydale.

Grabbing her handphone, she noticed the faint light of dawn shinning in the windows and stifled a silent groan. It had been a long day. She had only gotten two hours of sleep after reaching home before being awaken shortly by a call from Xander who was in panic mode. It had slipped everyone's minds that the arrival of the new arrivals had released a lot of chaotic energies into the world. The last time it had happened, a dinosaur from the distant past had come to town...

The phone rang in her ears, Jenny covering a yawn as she waited for Giles to pick up.

"Jenny?" Giles voice came through as the call connected.

"Giles, I've gone through the scrying three times. Not even a single hint of magic that felt chaotic in nature showed up." Jenny said tiredly, struggling to keep her eyes open. A late night and three sets of vigorous spell casting had drained her. "Did Xander and the others find anything when they search the town?"

"They are still out combing the streets, but so far nothing. Xander's not able to detect anything either." Giles said in a weary voice. "Harper's keeping a watch on the local news for any strange... events, so far there's nothing of importance."

Using her free hand, Jenny began clearing her ritual components even as she tried to jump start her tired mind to think of something that might help the current situation.

"Giles, do you think that the chaotic energies, if it was even there tonight, dispensed naturally on its own?" Jenny asked, toying with the thought. It would explain why she had not detected anything through mystical means. "Anakin and the others have already been in our world for hours before Xander realized another portal might have formed from their unorthodox arrival."

"That could very well be the case." Giles admitted wearily. "But Xander will not rest until he had combed every part of Sunnydale to make sure nothing unusual come through this time. Rommie and the others are with him, they will be able to keep pace with him and protect him in case anything happen. In the meantime get some rest Jenny, you've been a big help already. I'll keep a watch at HQ and wait for the group to return."

Putting down the phone, Jenny did as Giles instructed and sunk into her couch, too tired to move to her bedroom. She would be fine after she recovered from all the weariness and magical exhaustion, but as she drifted to sleep, she prayed that nothing too sinister was unleashed this very night.

OoooO

"Well that's a perfectly good waste of my time." Cordelia snapped as they returned back to HQ after three hours of scouring the small town of Sunnydale, for any portals created by chaotic energies. "If not for all these walking about, I will still be in bed having my beauty sleep."

"Come on Cordelia, it's not as if Xander didn't have a perfectly good reason for us to be searching around town." Buffy was saying, trying to pacify the girl. Behind them Xander cringed from the glare Cordelia sent him.

"It did give us a chance to show everyone around Sunnydale though." Jonathon spoke up helpfully as Anakin and the rest of the newcomers trailed behind him in normal Earth civilian wear. He held up his hands, showing off the bags of steaming hot pancakes. "At the very least we managed to get breakfast."

"But it's strange, I wondered where the chaos energies went to." Xander said just as Giles got up from the couch to greet them.

"That's something we'll need to work on." Giles said as the group began setting the food on available tables, rounding up the area with chairs. "We'll probably need to come up with some mystical means to detect chaos energies in the future. In the meantime, Leia has completed another squad of Starspies. I've already sent them out to comb the town for any things out of the ordinary."

"Then it's lights out for me after breakfast." Willow said wearily. "Thankfully it is weekend, I think I'll just sleep in one of the spare mattress we bought back from all the furniture shopping yesterday evening."

"Yeah, good thing Ms Calendar actually have the foresight to order extra furniture and mattress on top of what was needed to house all of you guys." Buffy said, her eyes shifting to John and Anakin. "I think I'll also join you Willow, after I've gotten some food into me."

"Well everyone's probably tired after such a long night. With all that have happened the previous day, we'll need to be refresh and alert to carry out the plans we've agreed upon, as well as make more preemptive decisions for the coming futures in Sunnydale." Rommie said as everyone began gathering at the long table, lying out breakfast. "All of you rest after this, I'll keep watch for any unusual activities in town."

"Hopefully there wouldn't be another crisis again." Cordelia grumbled. "These few days are killing my social life. First we have those comics with our futures, then we found out about aliens and what not, and now our group has gotten bigger. Things are just happening too fast!"

"I am sure everything will be fine." Buffy said tiredly. "Demons, magic, aliens… we've already gone through all of them… What else can happen?"

OoooO

Colonel Marshall Sumner's face was impassive throughout the whole debriefing. He did not showed one shred of emotion on his face, even as shock and a hint of fear about what he now knew shook the core of his soul. Across the table, the legendary General Talbot, known in the upper circles of the army for surviving several high profile black ops missions, was observing him calmly after he had dropped the bomb shell on him.

When his latest commission had been suddenly terminated, with a request for him to head down to the United States Special Watch Group headquarters located at the outskirt of Los Angeles immediately for his new assignment, Sumner had been shocked and confused. He had thought he must have pissed off someone higher up in order to be reassigned all of a sudden. He had not expected to find himself tasked to take over the Spook squad of the United States.

"Demons are real…" Sumner managed to drag out of his dried lips. It had taken an impressive amount of control for him to regain his nerves after seeing the videos of the experiments done on the sub-terrestrials by the Initiative, a special secretive group set up by the Army, currently located in the desert of Los Angeles outskirt. The Initiative was originally formed to look into ways to combat the sub-terrestrials. Sumner managed to hold in a snort. Only pencil pushers would come up with a term like sub-terrestrials to describe demons.

"Yes, and Mayor Wilkins of Sunnydale had been our most important supplier of them for the experiments." General Talbot said neutrally, though a flicker of distaste crossed his eyes at discussing the experiments. "However, in light of recent events in Sunnydale. The Army has conducted investigations into the Mayor and discovered that he is most probably a dark sorcerer who has survived for hundred plus years without aging. It has been discovered that several senators are actually in the Mayor's pockets, or at least charmed by him magically, to be his supporters."

"The President has misgivings about the Initiative project from the start, but he could not counter it due to the powerful influence of several senators supporting the in depth studies of sub-terrestrials. It may not surprise you to know that those senators who supported the Initiative have ties to Wilkins. We suspect that Wilkins was the one initiating the project in the background, for what purpose we do not know. We've however found evidence that reports about experiments done on the demons Wilkins supplied, have somehow found their way back to Wilkins through his senators' contacts."

"Those senators have been dealt with, and the President had shut down the Initiative at approximately 2200 hrs yesterday night. All personnel involved in the project are being investigated and isolated. He has tasked the Army to set up a new task force, a group that is meant to be the spearhead in keeping the sub-terrestrials population in United States, especially the aggressive ones, in check. The group will focus on research and combat, with no further experimentations on the sub-terrestrials being conducted. You, Sumner, will be in charge of running this task force, code named Project Hell Watch."

Sumner just gave General Talbot a sour look, he could already feel a headache coming on. The General however just snorted in amusement as he continued.

"Well, at the very least the President has a sense of humor. He's the one that named the operation." General Talbot said.

If anything, Sumner's face just looked more grim. Ending his career to head an operation that hunts the world's boogeyman was never in his plan. But Sumner had never been one to counter an order, so he just kept silent as the General continued. "Your first mission is to lead the men selected for your team to apprehend and capture Wilkins, or failing that, terminate him. But before that, contact these people on the list. One of them is from the Watchers' Council while the rest are magic users. If possible, get their help for the mission, if not, they might be able to provide you with intel regarding the Mayor and Sunnydale."

"Watchers' Council. The British counterpart of what we're doing now?" Sumner asked. The General did touch on the Council in the briefing, but not a lot of details were provided.

"The Watcher's Council is more of a research organization, with their own hit squads." General Talbot said, distaste on his face. He looked like he wanted to say more, but stopped himself. "If I have a choice, I would much rather we do not involve the Council's representative at all. But the Council representative and the magic users he has gathered have been in Sunnydale for a while. Their intel might very well save lives. Mayor Wilkins has to be a very powerful dark magic user to survive this long. You're to attack from a distance and avoid close contact. A priest and a shaman will be assigned to your team. But I'll be honest, I have no idea how useful they will be."

Sumner stifled a groan. Taking a priest and a shaman to a mission? He knew he was in his own personal hell right now.

OoooO

Rommie looked up momentarily. She had been constructing an energy scanner when one of the droids which Angel had assigned to scan the group's research documents sent a general message of job done. The droid had been scanning the Sheng Yen prophecies which had caused Buffy so much grief the past few days. The scanned and translated information was already transmitted to the central database. Since Angel was not around and Giles had already collapsed on one of the spare mattress, sleeping away like most of the others, she assigned the droid to pick up another tomb to scan and translate.

There was not much that needed to be researched currently, the Soul Curse had already been translated, and with the Sheng Yen prophecies completed, now all that was needed was to scan and translate their whole occult library into digital copies, displayed in English.

"_Rommie?"_ Harper contacted her wirelessly. _"You might want to look at the prophecies that were just scanned."_

"_Hmm…?"_ Rommie queried back as she accepted the data packet that Harper had sent her. For several seconds, she stilled as she processed the information. Then she blinked, head turning to look at the pile of mattress at the corner of the hangar where Xander and the others were lying asleep.

"Oh my." Rommie said in shock.

"Is something wrong Rommie?" Andrew asked as he approached her. He, Anakin and Wolverine had been the only three who had insisted that they were not tired. While the others were sleeping, Wolverine had been surfing the internet for more information about the world, while Anakin was meditating, or as Andrew put it, the Jedi Master was communicating with the Force. Andrew had spent a while staring at the man in hero worship before moving around the base finding things to occupy himself.

"I… I'll tell you later. Once everyone are awake." Rommie said apparently coming to a decision as she turned back to the half constructed energy scanner on the table before her.

"So what is that?" Andrew asked curiously as Rommie went about her work.

"It's an energy scanner I clobbered together with technologies and schematics from my verse and Gaia's tech base." Rommie said as she soldered two wires together. "Hopefully it will allow us to detect a wide range of energies, such as magic and those chaotic energies Xander was talking about."

"Now that's a plan." Andrew said with interest. "Is there anything I can help with?"

Rommie paused looking at him. "Actually… yes. Have you looked through the database on the schematics to create holographic devices?"

"Yeah, it was one of the first things I look up aside from replicator technologies. With the right materials, I can probably construct one." Andrew said with a nod. "A holographic device can be constructed with present day technologies without too much of an effort… unlike the replicator."

"Oh good, let me show you the pile of raw materials Xander had previously morph for such a project." Rommie said as she led Andrew outside of the main hangar into the neighboring one where the starship construction was taking place. "It'll be a great help if you can construct a holographic projector while I am busy with other tasks. We are going to need one of it soon."

"Is there any reason for the urgency?" Andrew asked curiously.

Rommie hesitated before looking at Andrew. "It is not for me to say… But I suspect that John will be very grateful if one is created for him. After you've given the device to him, well… you'll know the reason."

Andrew looked at Rommie for a moment before his eyes widened, his mind linking the dots. "Of course! There's not much information about the Halo game… but the game description stated that John completes his missions with the help of an A.I. named Cortana…" Andrew paused as he stared at Rommie. "Xander and the others… You didn't tell them that John is not alone did you?"

"I have verified that Cortana mean us no harm… As such, if John wishes to keep her a secret for the moment, it is not my place to reveal it." Rommie said. "And if the others bothered to look up the Halo game in production, they would have known that John is not alone."

"Well, I've no problem keeping it a secret for the moment." Andrew said understandingly. "It's going to take me a day or so to construct the holographic device. I'll work on it… and maybe find out more about the Halo game in production…"

OoooO

It was a blistering hot mid-day afternoon. As per its daily schedule, the bus from Los Angeles arrived at Sunnydale bus depot at roughly the designated time. A few of the passengers began getting off the bus. One of the passenger, a monk apparently, who had the appearance of a man still in his youth, dressed in a brown matted habit and robe, drew quite a few looks from several passer-by.

The monk looked quickly around him, his eyes fearful and skittish as he quickly made his way across the street, his hands clutching something underneath his robes. Those nearby heard him uttering some weird gibbering of phrases and quickly shield away. Sunnydale was already weird enough without the appearance of one more crazy person.

The passer-by never noticed as something glowed beneath the monk's robe, even as he turned his head towards the road leading to the center of the town.

"The Key." The monk muttered, relief in his eyes. "And also its Keeper. They're in this town. I need to warn them. I need to complete my Brothers' final request!"

Stumbling down the street, he froze as he reached the intersection of the road. "Separated… they're separated… how can this be? The Abbott told me the Slayer's supposed to protect the Key. Which is the Key? Which is the Slayer?" Fear creep into his eyes as he muttered to himself. The monk's hands shook as if he did not know what to do now. For a moment, he hovered indecisively by the roadside. Then his lips tightened as he picked a direction, stalking down the road with grim determination. The monk's eyes dart around him skittishly as he made his journey deeper into the heart of Sunnydale.

There was no time for fear or indecision. There was only the mission, to complete his dead Brothers' last request.

OoooO

Joyce Summers was on the war path as she drove her car towards Willow Rosenberg's home, with a silently cringing Dawn sitting in the back seat.

But her mind was not on her youngest child. No, her mind was occupied with thoughts of her eldest who had not returned home since yesterday morning. Except from a call during the evening when Buffy had told her she would be having a sleepover at Willow's place, she had received no other news from her eldest. One full night had passed, now it was already afternoon of a new day!

Worry, fear and anger at her daughter warred within Joyce as she drove down personally to check up Willow's place, to find out what on earth her daughter was up to. Calls to Willow's place had been unanswered, and Joyce had worked herself up to a full blown case of motherly concern by the time she pulled her car into the Rosenberg's driveway.

"Willow's place looks empty." Dawn stated unhelpfully as she peered out of the windows at Willow's house.

"Stay in the car." Joyce said tersely as she opened the car door and stalked up the walkway. She pressed the doorbell, hearing the muffled chimes of music within the house. Seconds passed and she could hear no moments within the house. Reaching out, she pressed the doorbell again, this time follow by sharp knockings on the door.

"I don't think anyone's home." Dawn said from behind her, causing Joyce to whirl around.

"I told you to stay in the car!" Joyce snapped, worry over Buffy's whereabouts was giving her a short temper.

"I just wanted to help…" Dawn said but quailed under Joyce's fierce look.

"Stay. Here." Joyce gritted out through clenched teeth. A cringing Dawn quickly nodded her understanding. Seeing that her youngest would listen to her words now, Joyce took a quick stroll around the house, peering into the windows. Where the hell was her daughter? Where was Willow for that matter?

A startled cry of alarm from Dawn caused her to break off her attempts at snooping around, running back to the front of the house. Her eyes widened as she saw a robed man frantically pulling at a screaming Dawn towards the driveway.

"You! You are not safe here! We need to find the Slayer…" The young man was muttering in crazed speech as he pulled at Dawn who was struggling frantically.

With the stress of not knowing what had happened to her eldest daughter and now this, something within Joyce snapped. "Let go of my daughter." Joyce roared, rushing forward. The normally docile woman began to struggle with the robed man, uncaring of any dangers as she tried to wrestle her daughter free from his grasp.

"You are not the Slayer! It needs to be under the Slayer's protection." The robed man continued his mad tirade. "The spell is supposed to work. It has turned real using essence of the Slayer. What has gone wrong? I… I wish the Abbott was here!"

"Mum!" Dawn was shrieking in shock as her mother swung a right hook at the hooded man knocking him onto the pavement. By now, other people who were nearby were attracted by the commotion happening on the street, and two men had rushed forward to restrain the struggling man who had tried to make another move on Dawn.

"Madam, you and your girl alright?" One of the men was asking as Joyce shakingly hugged Dawn to her close.

"No! Let me go! Aurve kirse umena!" The robed man shouted. The two men holding him down jumped back with startled cries as their hands seemingly melt before their eyes. The robed man scrambled up, cast one frantic look at Joyce and Dawn before running down the street.

"What the hell is going on?" One of the rescuers said in shock as he stared at his hands which had turned back to normal.

Still frozen in shock, Joyce and a shivering Dawn had no answer.

OoooO

Tiredness and weariness crashed down on him. Snuggling deep in the blankets, Xander thought he heard distant shouts. Then someone was shaking him hard. Giving a groan, Xander struggled awake. Blinking his eyes open, he saw that Cordelia and a few others were already up.

Buffy's eyes were bloodshot and she was grimly holding on her sword as Cordelia pointed a finger at her and she disappeared. Then Rommie, Andrew and Anakin crowd around Cordelia as the four of them disappear as well.

"What is going on?" Xander asked as he struggled awake. He turned, seeing a worried Willow looking down at him. She must have been the one that woke him.

"The monk from the Order of Dagon, he is in town." Willow said in a terse voice as Xander came awake in an instant. "The Starspies around Dawn detected him when he approached her. They informed HQ at once. Rommie thinks this one is different from the original monk sent during the comic future timeline. His appearance is much younger and different for one thing. And he doesn't seem to have much experience with the real world. He nearly caused a scene in public, trying to drag Dawn off after him. Thankfully the Starspies didn't detect any Hell God or her minions, or even anyone that looks like the Knights of Byzantium during that time."

"The monk is here?" Xander said as he jumped up, eyes flashing in anger. "Is Dawn okay?"

"She's fine." Willow said as she followed Xander out of their sleeping area. "Mrs. Summers' driving back home with Dawn now. Buffy got Cordelia to send her home to meet them. Rommie and the others went to get the monk back so he wouldn't cause any more trouble." Willow hesitated as she looked at Xander. "Xander, I think Buffy decided that it's time to tell her mom and Dawn everything. With the monk here, Glory and the Knights of Byzantium will probably soon arrive. Joyce and Dawn need to be able to protect themselves when those two groups come knocking on their door."

"Well it's about damn time." Xander agreed with a nod. "I'll prepare the seals to extract more Halloween items from the storage dimension. Once Buffy is done, we'll outfit the two of them."

"Leia had sent out two new squadrons of Starspies to scout the town." Jonathon spoke out from the side. "She's rushing to complete another squad in an hour and the last squad by nightfall so that most of Sunnydale could be covered."

"Good, we'll need to be prepared now that a Hell Goddess is on the way." Xander said grimly. "I hope we don't have to end up killing anyone human… but if that's the only way to protect Dawn and all of us… then that's the way it is."


End file.
